Her  Guace  the  Ditches  s  of  Bevo^s-shike 


BARTOLOZZI 

AND    HIS   PUPILS    IN 
ENGLAND 

fFITH   AN  ABRIDGED   LIST   OF  HIS  MORE 

IMPORTANT  PRINTS  IN  LINE   AND 

STIPPLE 


SELWYN    BRINTON,    M.A. 

Author    of 

THE     RENAISSANCE    IN     ITALIAN     ART,"      "  CORREGGIO, 

"the    XVIIITH    CENTURY    IN     ENGLISH 

CARICATURF,"     ETC. 


New   York  : 
FREDERICK   A.    STOKES    COMPANY 


Printed  in   Great  Britain. 


All  rights  reserved. 


This  study  of  the  great  engraver  is  dedicated  to 
^Algernon  Qraves,  F.S.J. 

whose  assistance  and  sympathy  I  have  proved 
in  my  past  researches,  and  who,  both  in  his 
writings  upon  English  art,  and  his  conduct  oj 
the  business  of  Henry  Graves  and  Co.,  Ltd., 
has  shown  himself  a  worthy  inheritor  of  the 
gr$at  tradition  bequeathed  to  his  firm  by 
their  famous  predecessors 

John  and  Josiah   Boydelt 

(of    go    Cheapside    and    the     Shakespeare 

Gallery,    Pall  Mall),  the   first  and    most 

faithful  patrons  of  Francesco  Bartolozzi. 


2039281 


INTRODUCTION 

In  undertaking  the  work  of  editing  a  new  series  of 

Art  Monographs,  when  so  many  similar  works,  both 
in  volume  and  series  form,  are  already  before  the 
public,  the  obvious  and  discouraging  criticism  as  to 
"  the  making  of  books,"  which  dates  as  far  back  as 
the  author  of  Ecclesiastes,  came  forcibly  before 
my  mind. 

If  I  decided  on  the  task,  in  spite  of  that  criticism, 
it  was  because  several  considerations  came  to  support 
my  courage,  and  strengthen  my  resolve.  The  first 
and  most  immediate  was  that  I  had  already  at  my 
disposal  an  excellent  series,  edited  by  Richard 
Muther,  which,  under  the  title  of  "  Die  Kunst,"  has 
attained  a  deserved  success  in  Germany.  For 
Richard  Muther's  indefatigable  energy  of  culture, 
his  wide  art  knowledge  (to  which  his  "  Modern 
Painting,"  and  his  recent  "  History  of  English 
Painting"   bear  witness),  and,  above  all,  his  virile 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

energy  of  style,  I  have  the  deepest  and  most  sincere 
admiration  ;  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  look  forward  to 
including  such  works  as  his  "  Lucas  Cranach  "  and 
"  Leonardo  "  within  the  present  series. 

But,  if  here  my  subjects  are  already  suggested, 
it  is  not  my  purpose  to  rest  content  with  these. 
For  art  is  not  a  closed  field,  but  a  vast  territory  ; 
and  from  her  broad  high  roads  we  may  turn  into 
the  most  delicious  and  unexpected  bypaths  and 
green-shaded  lanes.  It  is  just  these  bypaths,  where 
a  vast  folio  could  scarce  find  space  to  enter,  that 
such  little  volumes  as  these  are  most  fitted  to 
explore  ;  it  is  here  that  they  may  be  of  real  service 
to  the  English-speaking  public,  where  to  present 
a  Michelangelo  in  miniature  might  seem  a  task 
little  short  of  sacrilege. 

In  the  charming  little  work,  which  I  can  promise 
from  Mr.  Emanuel,  upon  that  vanguard  of  the 
armies  of  Bohemia,  the  artists  of  Montmartre — in 
the  study  on  the  Japanese  artists  of  colour-printing 
which  Mr.  Strange,  a  known  master  of  the  subject, 
is  preparing — even  in  my  own  study  of  that  fasci- 
nating and  still  popular  engraver,  Francesco  Barto- 
lozzi,  I  have  sought  to  get  a  little  away  from  the 
high  road  into   these   restful  artistic  byways ;  and 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

here,  to  clinch  my  resolve,  to  give  me  courage  in 
my  new  venture,  there  comes  the  memory  of  a 
strong  living  word  spoken  to  me  years  ago,  when, 
as  a  young  student,  I  visited,  full  of  reverent  enthu- 
siasm, that  master  in  many  forms  of  art,  the  late 
William  Morris.  "  Art,"  said  the  great  English 
poet  and  craftsman  of  lovely  decorative  forms,  "  Art 
breeds  art  !  "  The  supply,  by  stimulating  the 
interest,  itself  increases  the  demand  ;  and  there  can 
be  no  fear,  from  this  point  of  view,  for  any  sincere 
worker  in  any  form  of  art  production  that  his  effort 
will  be  entirely  useless  or  unappreciated. 

And  now  I  turn  to  the  special  subject  of  this 
volume,  and  gladly  seize  this  chance  for  a  few 
moments'  informal  chat  with  my  reader  about  Barto- 
iozzi,  A  friend  of  mine,  whose  name  stands  high 
both  as  an  artist  and  teacher,  found  fault  with  me 
recently,  in  looking  over  my  own  collection,  for 
using  in  connection  with  my  Guercino  prints  the 
word  "  engravings,"  The  point  raised  is  an  inter- 
esting one,  and,  as  I  have  used  the  expression  "  line 
engravings"  in  this  book,  I  should  like  to  go  into  it 
briefly.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Bartolozzi,  in  these 
prints,  used  the  etching  point  quite  as  much  as  the 
graver  ;  and  Mr.  Hamerton — Editor  of  the  "  Port- 


X  INTRODUCTION 

folio  "  and  an  authority  on  this  point — in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Tuer  once  said  :  "  Bartolozzi's  plates  from 
Guercino  were  quite  strictly  what  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  etchings — most  of  the  lines  in  them  drawn 
with  great  freedom  and  rapidity  on  a  plate  covered 
with  etching  ground,  and  afterwards  bitten  with 
aqua  fortis. 

"Some  of  these  lines  have  been  subsequently  cleared 
and  deepened  with  the  burin  "  (or  graver),  "  but  not 
to  such  extent  as  to  make  a  burin  engraving  of  the 
work.  I  mean,"  he  added,  "  that  the  character 
given  by  the  etching-point  is  still  quite  predominant, 
whereas  in  what  we  call  a  line-engraving  the  etched 
work  is  merely  preparatory."  And  he  then  pointed 
out  that,  since  etchers  often  use  the  burin  at  the 
end  of  their  work,  and  engravers  always  use  the 
etching-point  at  the  beginning,  the  real  test  is  that, 
in  an  etching,  the  freedom  of  the  bitten  line  is 
preserved  to  the  end.  but  in  a  line-engraving  the 
formal  and  severe  character  of  the  graved  line  pre- 
dominates, and  the  burin  work  overcomes  the  bitten 
woik.  Under  Bartolozzi's  magic  touch  both  tools 
were  used  to  full  effect,  but  the  freedom  of  line 
generally  (not  always)  preserved  ;  and  in  these  cases 
it   would    be   as   correct  to  call  them  etchings  as 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

engravings,  though  I  have  preferred  to  keep  to 
the  accepted  terminology  for  the  sake  of  con- 
venience. 

Yet  one  last  word  (a  word  of  caution)  to  the 
collector  into  whose  hands  these  pages  come  ;  and 
here  I  must  step  out  of  this  editorial  chair,  and  meet 
him  (or  her)  upon  the  common  ground  of  a  common 
enthusiasm. 

The  attraction  is  great,  the  prizes  to  be  found 
a  lasting  joy,  but  the  perils  manifold  :  especially  is 
this  the  case  with  colour-prints,  for  which  the  high 
prices  now  to  be  obtained  (ranging  for  good  speci- 
mens from  £^0  to  ;^200,  and  over)  form  an  incen- 
tive to  an  unscrupulous  dealer. 

Of  course  the  quality  of  the  paper  is  a  point  to 
be  noted  ;  and  the  wise  collector  will  buy  no  print 
without  seeing  it  outside  its  frame.  Bartolozzi 
engravings  were  mostly  printed  upon  a  soft,  ribbed, 
Dutch  hand-made  paper,  which,  when  held  to  the 
light,  shows  generally  specks  of  dirt  in  tht  texture  ; 
and,  when  one  has  been  through  a  hundred  prints 
or  more,  one  gets  to  know  exactly  the  texture  and 
feel  of  this  paper,  which  is  quite  different  from 
modern  machine-made. 

Yet  again  let   the  collector   drive  into  his  mind 


xi!  INTRODUCTION 

that  point  insisted  on  by  Mr.  Andrew  Tuer,  a 
master  of  this  subject,  that  in  the  coloured  prints  of 
Bartolozzi  and  his  school  it  is  the  dots  that  are 
coloured,  and  not  the  background  j  whereas  in  the 
hand-coloured  stipple-prints,  with  which  the  curls 
shops  are  flooded,  the  paper  is  coloured  all  over,  and 
the  dots  show  through. 

Even  so  the  forgeries  are  so  numerous  and  so 
clever  (even  the  exact  imprint  with  its  occasional 
faults  in  spelling  being  copied)  that  it  is  sometimes 
difficult  to  escape  deception.  There  are  London 
shops  at  this  moment  where  these  modern  reprints 
m.ake  a  regular  weekly  change  in  the  window,  with 
or  without  "  Bartolozzi  "  frames  ;  and,  having  been 
once  thus  caught,  I  found  but  yesterday  a  replica  of 
my  lovely  fraud  (a  famous  beauty  of  Reynolds'  time) 
smiling  at  me  in  the  window  within  a  remote  Sussex 
village. 

Perhaps  the  best  lesson  really  is  to  be  thus  "  bit- 
ten," and,  having  owned  it,  and  paid  for  your 
experience,  to  place  the  forgery  beside  its  authentic 
original  from  one  of  the  Museums  or  great  private 
collections,  and  go  through  every  point  of  the 
modelling — the  curve  of  lips  and  nostrils,  the  light 
of  the  eye,  the  shadow  of  neck  and  chin — between 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

the  finished  proof  by  Burke  or  Bartolozzi  or  Ryland 
and  its  coarser  copy. 

Even  an  hour  thus  spent  will  not  have  been 
wasted ;  for  the  lesson,  once  learnt,  will  never  be 
forgotten. 

I  must  add  a  word  of  thanks,  in  conclusion,  to 
Messrs.  Colnaghi  of  Pall  Mall  East,  who  kindly 
placed  at  my  disposal  for  illustration  their  beautiful 
colour-prints  of  Georgiana^  Duchess  of  Devonshire^  and 
of  the  Countess  of  Derby ;  to  the  oincials  of  the 
British  Museum  Print  Room  and  the  Victoria  and 
Albert  Museum,  and  to  Baron  de  Worms,  whose 
superb  collection  of  Bartolozzi  prints  at  his  Brighton 
residence  has  been  of  the  greatest  value  to  my 
research. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


I.  Duchess  of  Dxvonshirb         ....         Frontit^iec* 

{Engraved  by  Bartoloui  from  Mr.  Downman't  dravring) 

Facing 

^agt 

a.  Mother  and  Child      .......      io 

(Engraved  by  Ba^tolozzifrom  Gutrcino) 

3.  An  Italian  Music  Lesson    .         .         .         .         .         .16 

{Engraved  by  R.  D  alt  on  from  Gutrcino) 

4.  Francesco  Bartolozzi,  R.A.  .         .  .  .         .18 

{Engra7'ed  by  R,  S.   Marcuard  from   Sir  /.   Reyn»ld$, 
P. R.A.) 

5.  Infant  St.  John  .......     ao 

{Engraved  by  Bartolozzi  from  Guercino) 

6.  Angelica  Kauffman  beside  Poetry      .         ,         ,  -23 

{Engraved  by  Thos.  Burke  from  her  ovjn  self  Portrait) 

7.  Holy  Family  with  Angel a6 

{Engraved  by  Bartolozzi  from  Guercino) 

8.  Beauty        .........     33 

{Engraved  by  Bartolozzi  from  Ciprianis  drawing) 

9.  Thais H 

{Engraved  by  Bartolozzi  from  Sir  J.  Reynolds,  P. R.A.) 

10.  An  Italian  Music  Lesson 40 

{Engraved  by  Bartolozzi  from  Guercino) 

11.  HoRACK ;i 

{Engraved  by  Barttlotzi  from  Angelica  Kauffmmn) 

12.  Cufid's  Manufactory 56 

{Engraved  by  Bartolozzi  from  Francesco  Albano) 

13.  The  Rt.  Hon.  the  Countess  of  Derby        .  •     ^3 

{Engraved  by  Bartolozzi  from  Sir  Thomas  Lawrencg) 

14.  Head  of  an  Old   Man         ......     64 

{Engraved  by  G.  Vitalba  from  Guercino) 

15.  A  Nest  of  Loves         .....  •     ^ 

{Engraved  by  L,  Schiavonetti  from  S.  Aspinall) 

16.  Syrinx  escaping  Pan     .......     77 

{Adapted  from  Bartolozzi s  Frontispiece  to  /.  C.   BaeKs 
Sonatas) 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

UDENT    LIFE    AN 

English  engraving  before  Bartolozzi — Training  in  Flor- 
ence under  Hugford — The  message  of  the  antique — 
Apprenticeship  to  Wagner  at  Venice — Dalton's  offer 

Pp.  1-17 

CHAPTER  II 

ENGRAVING    IN    LINE    AND    STIPPLE 

Bartolozzi  in  London — The  Guercino  prints — Angelica 
Kauffman — Methods  of  engraving  in  stipple  and  line 
—•Work  for  the  Boyd  ells        .         .         .     Pp.  18-36 

CHAPTER  III 

THE    ENGLAND    OF    PITT    AND    HER    ILLUSTRATORS 

Political  conditions  on  Bartolozzi's  arrival — Ticket  for 
Wilkes'  Ball,  and  The  Death  0/  Earl  Chatham— Th^ 


xviii  CONTENTS 

Caricaturists,  Gillray  and  Rowlandson — Classicism 
still  in  fashion — Prints  from  Reynolds,  Cipriani,  and 
Angelica  KaufFman        .         .         ,         ,     Pp.  37-51 

CHAPTER  IV 

BARTOLOZZI    IN    LONDON    AND    LISBON 

Bartolozzi*s  lavish  conduct  entails  incessant  production — 
Hostility  of  Sir  Robert  Strange — Bartolozzi's  family — 
He  leaves  England  for  Lisbon  in  1802 — His  death 
there  in  1 8 1 5 Pp.  5  2-60 

CHAPTER  V 

bartolozzi's    pupils    in    ENGLAND 

Henry  Bunbury  and  Bartolozzi — The  latter*s  contem- 
poraries— Vitalba  and  Vivares,  and  his  predecessor 
Zocchi — His  pupils  Cheesman,  Delattre,  Tomkins, 
Minasi,  and  others — Conclusion    .         .     Pp.  61-75 

List  of  Prints  by  Francesco  Bartolozzi 

Line-engravings  or  etchings — Portraits — Subjects  from 
Mythology  and  Romance — Book  Illustrations  and 
Benefit  Tickets Pp.  76-96 


CHAPTER  I 

BARTOLOZZrS  STUDENT  LIFE  AND 
'PRENTICESHIP 

THE  subject  of  tins  study,  the  famous  en- 
graver Francesco  Bartolozzi,  may  serve  as 
an  example  of  the  vagaries  of  artistic 
fashion.  The  interest  in  his  beautiful  prints — which 
was  widely  felt  and  expressed  in  England  at  the 
time  of  their  production — has  since  waned,  revived, 
and  may  not  improbably  decrease  again  ;  but  that 
this  interest  will  never  entirely  cease,  that  it  will, 
should  it  ever  decay,  as  certainly  again  revive,  is  a 
prophecy  which  is  surely  justified  by  the  superb  and 
finished  drawing,  by  the  exquisite  feeling  for  form 
which  appears  throughout  his  work  from  the  first 
moment  when  his  individuality  is  able  to  assert  itself. 
At  the  same  time,  to  the  private  collector — such 
as,  in  a  small  way,  I    may    count   myself — these 

A 


2  BARTOLOZZI 

prints  form  an  untiring  source  of  fresh  delight ; 
whether  it  is  a  translation  into  superb  line  work  ot 
Guercino  da  Cento's  drawings,  or  some  delicately- 
modelled  stipple  engraving,  it  is  not  merely  the 
thrill  of  first  possession,  but  the  deeper  pleasure  of 
daily  companionship,  which  does  not  diminish  with 
time,  and  even — I  speak  here  of  my  personal  ex- 
perience— is  a  persistent  and  invaluable  training  to 
the  eye  in  qualities  of  careful  draughtmanship. 

Years  ago  (1887),  when  writing  for  the  Portfolio 
under  the  delightful  and  gifted  editorship  of  the 
late  Mr.  P.  G.  Hamerton,  I  pointed  out  how  the 
rage  for  Francois  Boucher's  drawings — then  at  the 
height  of  his  success,  the  Peintre  du  Roi,  and 
director  of  the  Gobelins  tapestries — had  led  to  their 
rapid  reproduction  by  De  Marteau,  and  proved  a 
source  of  great  profit  both  to  artist  and  engraver. 
The  Education  of  Cupid  and  the  Fenus  and  Cupid^ 
both  taken  from  Boucher,  might  here  be  cited  as 
examples. 

Francois  Boucher  himself  was  born  at  Paris  in 
1707,  Giles  de  Marteau,  the  brilliant  engraver  of 
his  work,  at  Liege  in  1722,  and  Francesco  Barto- 
lozzi  in  1727  ;  so  that  the  latter  entered  on  his 
career  just  at  a  time  when  the  fashion  for  prints  was 


BARTOLOZZrS  STUDENT  LIFE      3 

at  its  height,  both  in  Paris  and  London — a  fact 
which  we  shall  have  to  dwell  on  later  in  our  study 
of  his  work  in  stipple. 

But  the  English  school  of  engraving  could  boast 
a  definite  and  individual  development,  which  is  of 
sufficient  interest  to  detain  us  ere  we  come  to  the 
personal  career  of  the  engraver  Bartolozzi. 

It  is  true  that  the  art  of  engraving  upon  plates  of 
metal  appears  earlier  in  use  upon  the  Continent  than 
in  England,  where  its  artistic  development  is  slower 
and  later.  As  early,  however,  as  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,  in  a.d.  1540,  the  entry  in  a  list  of 
goods  of  "  2  figures  graven  in  copper  the  one  the 
man  the  other  woman,  with  their  Intrayles  thereto 
belonging,"  may  belong  to  the  first  edition  of  the 
Birth  of  Mankind,  now  in  the  British  Museum. 
In  fact,  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  at  this 
period  was  probably  a  hindrance  to  the  engraver's 
art  in  England  ;  because  this  art  had  upon  the 
Continent,  from  its  very  inception,  become  closely 
connected  with  the  figures  and  legends  of  saints, 
and  symbolism  of  the  Catholic  worship.  Thus 
when  it  came  into  English  use  it  became  mostly 
employed  upon  maps,  title-pages,  portraits,  or 
anatomical  prints,  upon  subjects  which,  in  general, 


4  BARTOLOZZI 

possess  a  secondary  artistic  interest.  Possibly  the 
'-^  Delineatio  tot'ius  Anatomise''''  of  Gemini  (1545), 
certainly  the  map  engravings  of  Cole  and  Ryther 
belong  to  this  class ;  while  William  Rogers 
( 1 589-1 604)  was  doing  excellent  work  upon  title- 
pages  and  engraved  portraits,  among  which  last  his 
fine  full  length  of  ^ueen  Elizabeth  remains  a  con- 
spicuous example. 

Already  within  the  line  work  a  certain  use  of 
dot  is  to  be  observed  in  these  old  prints,  which 
might  seem  to  foreshadow  the  later  magnificent 
creations  of  the  stipple  engravers,  among  whom  we 
shall  come  to  find  Bartolozzi  such  a  master.  No 
doubt,  too,  the  settlement  in  England  (a.d.  1616) 
of  the  Dutch  engraver,  Simon  van  de  Passe,  with 
his  brother  Willem,  whose  father,  Crispin,  was 
already  known  as  an  engraver  in  this  country,  is  of 
importance  in  the  development  of  the  English 
School,  because  a  whole  school  of  pupils — including 
Hole,  Delaram,  Payne,  Marshall,  Glover,  and 
Vaughan — was  formed  under  their  influence,  whose 
work  shows  an  advance  upon  that  of  their  Eliza- 
bethan predecessors. 

William  Faith orne,  a  pupil  of  John  Payne,  had 
studied  in  Paris  durini^  the   troubled   period   of  the 


BARTOLOZZrS  STUDENT  LIFE       5 

Civil  Wars  ;  and  to  that  very  period  of  unrest  and 
political  strife  belongs  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
developments  in  a  new  and  fascinating  branch  of  the 
graver's  art.  The  excellent  Loan  Exhibition  held 
this  year  (1903)  at  the  Victoria  and  Albert 
Museum,  which  represents  very  fairly  the  work  of 
the  men  I  have  just  mentioned — Gemini,  Rogers, 
Crispin,  Simon,  and  Willem  van  de  Passe,  Hole, 
Delaram,  Marshall,  Vaughan,  and  Payne — and 
whose  valuable  notes  on  these  men  I  have  found  of 
great  service,  has,  in  the  section  which  includes 
their  work  with  that  of  the  quaint  Wenceslaus 
Hollar  and  Sherwin,  one  study  which  seems  to 
carry  us  away  from  them  into  a  new  epoch  of  art. 
It  is  that  magnificent  mezzotint  engraving  called 
The  Great  Executioner^  by  Prince  Rupert.  A  heads- 
man or  soldier  holds  in  his  hand  outstretched  the 
severed  head  ;  and  the  subject,  in  which  the  Prince 
had  followed  Spagnoletto,  has  a  melancholy  interest 
when  we  think  that  the  King,  whom  he  served  so 
faithfully,  met  in  this  very  way  his  life's  conclusion. 
Van  Siegen  had  invented  this  new  art,  and  had 
given  his  secret  to  the  Prince  at  Brussels  in  1654  ; 
but  mezzotint  rather  lies  outside  my  province  here, 
and   therefore   I  will  say   no   more  of  this   grand 


6  BARTOLOZZI 

creation,  which  stands  alone  among  the  work  of 
this  epoch,  and  surpasses  much  that  follows. 

In  the  same  epoch  William  Sherwin  (i 690-1 711), 
whose  name  I  have  just  mentioned,  develops  and 
carries  forward  the  tradition  of  the  now  fairly- 
established  English  School,  whose  best  eftbrts  are 
still  devoted  to  portraiture ;  and  in  the  unique 
satires  of  William  Hogarth,  and  the  line  engravings 
from  the  Old  Masters  of  Sir  Robert  Strange 
(i 721-1792)  we  have  reached  already  the  names  of 
artists  who  are  closely  connected  with  the  English 
career  of  Francesco  Bartolozzi.  What  I  have  said 
here  will  suffice  to  show  that,  when  this  last  artist 
arrived  in  England,  he  found  an  art  which  had  been 
already  established  and  practised  with  success  for 
nearly  two  centuries,  although  the  art  of  line 
engraving — of  which  he  shows  such  a  mastery  in 
his  work  from  Guercino,  and  which  had  been 
specially  favoured  by  his  rival.  Sir  Robert  Strange — 
became  in  this  very  period  overshadowed  to  some 
extent  by  the  fascinating  softness  and  rotundity  of 
stipple,  and  the  magnificent  possibilities  in  tone  of 
the  new  art  of  mezzotint. 

It  is  now  time  to  devote  ourselves  for  the  remainder 
of  this  chapter  to  the  outlines  of  Francesco  Barto- 


BARTOLOZZrS  STUDENT  LIFE      7 

lozzi's  early  life  and  artistic  training.  Gaetano 
Bartolozzi,  the  father  of  our  Francesco,  had  been  a 
Florentine,  occupied  with  the  goldsmith's  art,  so 
that  the  son,  as  a  young  student,  must  have  drawn 
in  both  the  memories  of  that  great  school  of  painting 
— that  maravigUosa  scuola  Fiorentina^  which  had  once 
been  the  glory  of  Italy — and  the  precise  training  of 
orfevriay  the  goldsmith's  craft,  which  had  in  greater 
days  given  to  Florence  such  artists  as  the  Pollajuoli, 
Verrocchio,  Botticelli,  and  the  later  Cellini.  From 
his  very  earliest  years  the  bent  towards  his  future 
career  seems  to  assert  itself  in  young  Francesco. 
At  nine  years  of  age  the  graver  is  already  in  his 
hand,  at  ten  a  couple  of  heads — some  prints  of  which 
are  said  to  still  exist — showed  such  precocious  power 
that  his  father  wisely  allowed  his  talent  its  natural 
outlet,  and  placed  him  in  the  Academy  of  Florence 
under  the  guidance  of  Ignazio  Hugford,  a  character 
of  some  interest  in  the  art  of  that  period. 

Bryan  *  states  that  Hugford  was  born  in  England 
in  1703,  but  it  is  certain  that  from  very  early  years 
he  was  connected  with  Florence;  and  Tuer  even 

*  Bryan's  "  Dictionary  of  Artists,"  of  which  Messrs. 
Bell  have  now  produced  a  new  and  most  valuable  revised 
edition. 


8  BARTOLOZZI 

mentions  him  as  born  there,  and  as  a  better  critic 
than  artist  in  fresco.  When  Francesco  came  to 
him  he  was  nearing  his  thirtieth  year,  and  his 
guidance  is  of  main  importance  to  the  young  en- 
graver's career.  Such  a  teacher  could  at  least  lead 
the  student  to  those  masters  whose  works  were 
near  him  in  church  and  Convent  and  Palace,  and  in 
the  famous  Grand  Ducal  Collection ;  and  even  if 
those  "  Primitives,"  who  now  so  fascinate  us,  were 
at  that  time  consigned  to  whitewash  or  treated  with 
scanty  interest,  yet  from  the  masterpieces  of  the 
later  men, — from  Perugino  and  his  greater  pupil 
Raffaelle,  from  del  Sarto,  the  "faultless  artist," 
from  Correggio,  and  even  that  Pietro  da  Cortona, 
whose  work  he  was  later  to  engrave, — there  were 
priceless  lessons  to  be  learnt  of  style  and  composition. 
Then,  as  with  other  great  artists,  the  world  of 
Greece  came  into  his  young  life  as  a  new  vision  ! 
His  passion  for  the  antique  is  known,  and  his  whole 
life  work  shows  him  to  have  been  interpenetrated 
with  its  beauty.  But  the  examples  of  the  great 
Florentine  masters  and  the  inspiration  of  the  antique 
formed  only  a  part  of  the  mental  equipment  of  his 
art ;  its  real  and  practical  issue  lay  in  his  constant 
unremitting  study  from  the  life.     It  was  at  this 


BARTOLOZZrS  STUDENT  LIFE       9 

time,  under  Ignazio  Hugford's  tuition,  that  Barto- 
lozzi  laid  the  foundation  of  that  mastery  of  draughts- 
manship which  led  the  printsellers  to  say,  in  his 
later  London  days,  of  any  defective  design  which 
was  handed  over  to  him  :  "  Bartolozzi  will  put  it 
to  rights."  His  faultless  drawing  of  the  hands — 
that  test  of  thorough  draughtsmanship — was  once 
commented  on  by  Sir  Joshua  himself;  and  at  this 
period  of  his  life  he  was  combining  with  the  study 
of  the  living  model  and  of  the  great  masters  in  the 
Florentine  private  collections  the  most  careful 
research  into  the  anatomical  structure  of  the  bones 
and  muscles,  of  which  he  made  countless  detailed 
studies. 

These  are,  after  all,  the  foundations  upon  which 
any  sound  mastery  of  figure  drawing  must  be  laid. 
Beneath  the  skin  and  flesh  the  network  of  muscle 
and  bone  is  constantly  varying  the  outer  surface 
forms,  just  as  in  the  same  way  the  living  body 
beneath  it  affects  every  fold  and  ripple  of  the 
drapery  ;  and  when  some  divinely  gifted  artist — 
such,  for  instance,  as  the  late  Dante  Gabriel 
Rossetti — either  from  prejudice  or  prudery  neglects 
this  solid  ground-work,  the  result  is  constantly 
making  some  unexpected  and  uninvited  appeiirance 


10  BARTOLOZZI 

in  his  painting.  And  to  this  period  of  fruitful  progress 
belongs  a  friendship  which  was  to  last  all  his  life, 
and  prove  of  inestimable  value  to  his  engravings. 

Giovanni  Battista  Cipriani  was  Bartolozzi*s 
fellow  pupil  in  that  Academy  of  Florence  of  the 
value  of  whose  training,  even  in  the  present  day, 
I  can  testify  from  personal  experience  :  the  two 
lads  became  friends,  and,  when  Bartolozzi  in  later 
years  came  to  London,  he  found  that  Cipriani  had 
preceded  and  was  ready  to  receive  him.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  not  only  was  Cipriani  a 
fellow  pupil  and  fellow  townsman  of  Bartolozzi, 
but  of  practically  the  same  age,  having  been  born, 
like  him,  at  Florence  in  1727,  although  his  family 
came  from  Pistoja.  Cipriani,  after  completing 
his  studies  under  Hugford,  went  (1750)  to  Rome 
for  improvement  ;  in  fact,  for  what  is,  I  believe, 
sometimes  called  in  young  ladies' education  "finish- 
ing off."  Later  on  he  came  to  England,  after  his 
work  in  Florence  had  already  gained  him  some 
reputation  ;  and  his  talents  in  London  as  a  designer, 
combined  with  those  of  Bartolozzi  as  engraver,* 
produced  the  happiest  results — results  which  perhaps 

*  See  my  List  of  Prints  for  an  early  work  by  both 
artists  (in  Baron  de  Worms'  collection)  before  1764. 


From  Gtiercino 


Engniieii  by  F.  Bijytolo:zi 
MOTHER  AND   CHILD 


BARTOLOZZrS  STUDENT  LIFE     ii 

neither  would  have  attained,  in  the  same  measure, 
working  alone. 

But  I  am  here  anticipating  events,  and  must 
return  to  the  point  of  departure  in  my  narrative  of 
Bartolozzi's  career.  In  his  great  work  on  Correggio 
the  present  Director  of  the  Brera  has  alluded  to 
that  "  pilgrimage  to  Rome,"  which,  in  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries,  was  deemed  essential  to  the 
development  of  the  completed  artist.  "  Artists 
were  actually  possessed  by  a  desire,  amounting 
almost  to  a  passion,  to  visit  the  Eternal  City,  and 
see  the  wonders  ancient  and  modern  culture  had 
combined  to  accumulate.  To  use  a  phrase  of  our 
own  day,  Rome  was  looked  upon  as  a  school  of 
perfection,  which  many  entered  by  dint  of  priva- 
tions and  hardships  innumerable." 

We  have  already  seen  the  young  Cipriani  to 
have  taken  this  journey  ;  and  the  same  widening 
and  stimulating  influence  was  fortunately  not 
wanting  in  Bartolozzi's  training.  The  close  of 
his  three  years  of  study  under  Hugford  was  marked 
by  a  visit  to  Rome  and  her  treasures  of  art ;  and 
thence  we  turn  to  a  new  period  in  his  development, 
which  placed  him  in  the  first  rank  of  the  engravers 
of  his  time,  in  his  apprenticeship,  at  eighteen,  for 


12  BARTOLOZZI 

a  period  of  six  years  to  Wagner,  a  printseller  of 
Venice. 

This  Joseph  Wagner  was  a  man  of  some  note 
in  his  time  and  profession.  Born  beside  Lake 
Constance  he  had  studied  in  Venice  under  Ami- 
goni,  who  persuaded  him  to  turn  his  thoughts 
from  painting  to  engraving.  He  was  twice  in 
England,  and  on  his  second  visit  engraved  the 
portraits  of  the  Royal  Princesses,  the  daughters 
of  George  II. ;  later  in  life,  returning  to  the  city 
of  the  Lagoons,  he  opened  up  what  became  a  very 
profitable  business  as  printseller,  as  well  as  a  school 
of  engraving.  The  works  of  Amigoni,  Luca 
Giordano,  Benedetto  Luti,  Solimene,  and  Piazzetta 
form  the  favourite  subjects  of  his  engravings  ;  in 
one  instance  (a  Holy  Family),  even  Veronese 
appears,  and  in  these  works,  as  well  as  his  landscapes 
and  pastorals,  he  was  assisted  by  his  pupils,  among 
whom  Francesco  Bartolozzi  is  now  to  be  included. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  his  apprenticeship  with 
Wagner  is  an  all  important  factor  in  the  technical 
progress  of  our  artist.  In  some  respects,  perhaps,  he 
lost  when  his  free  and  already  brilliant  drawing  was 
now  cramped  and  confined,  when  his  oil  painting 
was  practically  abandoned,  and  his  art  turned  into 


BARTOLOZZrs  STUDENT  LIFE     13 

a  drudgery  over  the  gigantic  plates  of  Guarana. 
But  on  other  sides  of  his  art  he  gained  immensely. 
Wagner  insisted,  above  all,  on  precision,  neatness, 
finish  of  detail;  and  this  insistence  forced  the  young 
artist,  who  might  have  remained  a  brilliant  amateur, 
to  become  a  scientific  and  masterly  engraver. 

If  he  ceased  to  paint,  he  continued  to  design;  and 
WQ  come  to  notice  in  this  period  that  gradually,  as 
his  mastery  over  the  graver  increased,  the  sense  of 
confinement,  the  lack  of  freedom  and  initiative 
which  mark  his  earlier  efforts  with  Wagner,  seem 
to  leave  him,  till,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  term  of 
apprenticeship,  he  was  on  a  level  with  the  best 
engravers  of  his  time  in  all  Europe.  Mr.  Andrew 
Tuer,  in  his  invaluable  work  on  Bartolozzi*  men- 
tions some  large  ecclesiastical  subjects  in  his  posses- 
sion signed  Gior.  Batta  Piazzetta  pin.y  F.  Bartolozzi 
sculp. ^  y.  Wagner  recognovit  et  vend,  (/'.f.,  Piazzetta 
painted,  Bartolozzi  engraved,  J.  Wagner  revised  and 
sold),  which  are  examples  of  the  cramped  mechani- 
cal style  into  which  he  fell  within  the  earlier  years 
of  his  apprenticeship. 

It  becomes  of  value  to  note  at  this  moment,  a  print 
*  "  Bartolozzi  and  his  Works,"  by  Andrew  W.  Tuer. 
Leadenhall  Press,  chap.  i.  p.  3. 


14  BARTOLOZZI 

with  the  title  Maggio^  evidently  one  of  a  series  of 
the  months,*  in  which  five  ladies  and  their  attendant 
cavalier  I  serventi  wander  through  some  Italian 
garden  adorned  with  statues,  fountains,  and  trim- 
cut  hedges,  while  young  girls  pick  the  spring-flowers; 
in  the  background  an  old  peasant  woman  is  milking 
goats,  and  a  sense  of  sunlight  seems  to  fill  the  whole 
pleasant  scene.  This  print  is  signed  G.  Zocchi  inv, 
F.  Bartolozzi  incid.  appo  Wagner  Ven.^  thus  show- 
ing it  to  have  been  produced  by  our  artist  during  his 
apprenticeship  at  Venice  under  Wagner  from  Zocchi's 
design  ;  and  I  shall  show  later  how  other  evidence 
seems  to  point  to  the  great  influence  exerted  upon 
young  Bartolozzi  at  this  critical  period  of  his  develop- 
ment by  that  magnificent  and  Httle  appreciated 
eighteenth-century  engraver,  Giuseppe  Zocchi. 

Venice  had  in  this  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  become  the  pleasure-ground  of  Europe. 
Beckford  in  his  contemporary  notes,  Molmenti  in 
his  marvellous  analysis  of  the  decadence  of  the 
Great  Republic,  have  painted  for  us  the  vast 
Piazza,with  its  moving  crowds — red-robed  Senators 
fresh  from  the  Council,  shrill-voiced  Carnival  masks, 

*  Twelve  Prints  in  all.  The  British  Museum  has  a 
complete  set,  and  Baron  de  Worms  another. 


BARTOLOZZrS  STUDENT  LIFE     15 

travellers  from  the  northern  capitals,  powdered 
abb^s,  penniless  poets,  ''^  fernmes  capricieuses,  7naris  sans 
cervelles^  cavaliers  servants  "  (as  Pantaleone  describes 
them  in  the  old  Venetian  Comedy),  all  joining  in 
the  one  universal  scramble  for  pleasure.  But  though 
young  Bartolozzi  no  doubt  shared  in  the  life  and 
amusement  of  the  wonderful  city,  we  have  the  best 
evidence  that  these  six  years  were  given  not  to 
pleasure,  but  to  constant  work  and  careful  progress. 
The  end  of  his  apprenticeship  is  marked  by  his 
betrothal  and  marriage  (which  shortly  followed)  with 
a  young  Venetian  girl  of  good  family,  Lucia  Ferro  ; 
and  now  for  a  time  he  returned  to  Rome,  where  he 
enjoyed  the  protection  of  Cardinal  Bottari,  worked 
upon  the  material  supplied  by  Domenichino* — that 
gifted  artist  who,  in  an  epoch  of  Academic  classicism, 
dared  to  bring  into  his  canvas  the  fresh  breath  of 
nature — and  where  his  son  Gaetano  was  born. 

When  he  returned  to  Venice  it  was  no  longer  as 
a  'prentice  but  a  master,  whose  fame  was  spreading 
over  Europe,  among  whose  patrons  were  the  Medici 
Duke  of  Tuscany,  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  and 
the  King  of  Naples  ;  and  at  this  very  time  an  event 

*  The  naked  children  (v.  List)  bearing  books  and 
censers  I  take  as  early  work  from  this  artist. 


i6  BARTOLOZZI 

occaned  which  formed  a  turning-point  in  our 
engraver's  career. 

George  III.  had  recently  succeeded  to  the  English 
throne,  and  had  sent  a  Mr.  Dalton,  who  had  been 
his  Hbrarian  when  Prince  of  Wales,  to  Italy  to 
purchase  works  of  art. 

Dalton  was,  it  is  said,  originally  a  coach-painter 
(though  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  coaches 
of  those  days  were  very  elaborately  decorated),*  and 
was  an  engraver  of  somewhat  modest  merits.  It  is 
interesting  to  compare  two  prints  in  my  possession, 
which  I  am  able  to  include  in  my  illustrations, 
both  treating  a  similar  subject — one  of  those 
Italian  music  lessons  or  concerts  which  Guercino 
designed  so  delightfully — and  to  note  how  the  free- 
dom and  beauty  of  Bartolozzi's  print  contrasts  with 
the  hard  mannered  treatment  in  Dalton's  engraving. 

But  Dalton  was,  at  least,  a  judge  of  good  work- 
manship when  he  saw  it.  He  had  already  com- 
missioned a  series  of  engravings  from  Bartolozzi  of 
Guercino's  drawings  ;  and  he  now  followed  this  up 
on  behalf  of  his  royal  patron  with  the  offer  of  the 
appointment  of  engraver  to  H.M.  King  George  of 
England,    and  a   salary  of  three    hundred    pounds 

*  Cipriani  himself  painted  panels  for  the  Royal  coach. 


5l«s-  ;:>.3««i;  -. 


i/: 


BARTOLOZZrS  STUDENT  LIFE     17 

yearly   for  a   period  of  three   years,  for  the  work 
done  for  himself. 

The  offer  was  a  tempting  one  and  perfectly 
genuine  ;  for  the  appointment  promised  was  im- 
mediately ratified.  Italy  was  decaying  and  penniless, 
England,  under  her  Hanoverian  monarchs,  pro- 
gressive and  prosperous  ;  and  Francesco  Bartolozzi — 
leaving  for  the  moment  his  wife,  who  was  in  bad 
healthjbehind  with  his  young  sonGaetano,  and  taking 
with  him  one  only  of  his  pupils,  Vitalba,  whose 
brilliant  work  we  shall  notice  later — arrived  in 
London  in  1764,  in  the  thirty-seventh  year  of 
his  life,  and  took  lodgings  with  his  old  friend  and 
fellow  student,  Cipriani,  at  the  house  of  a  Mr. 
Burgess,  in  Warwick  Street,  Golden  Square,  in  the 
very  centre  of  busy  London. 


CHAPTER  II 

ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE 

BARTOLOZZrS  portrait  was  painted  by 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  in  177 1-3,  when  he 
had  been  already  five  years  established  in 
England,  and  engraved  in  1 784  by  Robert  Marcuard. 
The  original  painting  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
Earl  of  Morley,  and  the  engraving  (of  which  a 
fine  example  is  in  the  British  Musuem)  is  an  oval, 
and  shows  us  the  artist  in  a  fur-trimmed  coat,  his 
left  arm  resting  on  a  table,  and  with  what  seems  to 
be  a  crayon  or  graver  in  his  right  hand. 

Though  slightly  older  this  fine  portrait  might  well 
answer  for  the  description  of  him  as  he  first  arrived 
in  London — as  a  tall,  heavily-built  man,  with  slightly 
curved  nose,  long  face,  broad  forehead,  well-shaped 
lips,  and  a  somewhat  grave  expression,  which  here 
certainly  is  kindly  and  genial,  if  slightly  serious. 


From  Sir  J.  Reynolds,  P.K.A  .  Kngmved  by  R.  S.  Marcuard 

FRANXESCO    BARTOLOZZI,    R.A. 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE  19 

The  great  engraver's  portrait  was  often  painted 
and  engraved,  and  Mr.  Tuer  mentions  no  less  than 
twenty  portraits,  among  which  J.  R.  Smith's*  fine 
mezzotint  of  Bartolozzi,  Carlini,  and  Cipriani 
deserves  a  special  mention,  as  well  as  two  stipple 
prints — one  from  a  sketch  by  Bartolozzi's  pupil 
Minasi,  engraved  by  Wagstaflfe,  and  another  from 
Dance's  painting,  engraved  by  Daniell ;  and  yet 
again  the  frontispiece  by  P.  W.Tomkins  of  Thomson^ 
Seasons,  adorned  with  medallion  portraits  of  Tomkins, 
Hamilton,  and  Bartolozzi. 

This  last  we  had  left  at  the  end  of  our  first 
chapter,  but  just  arrived  in  London,  a  fellow  lodger 
with  his  Old  student  friend,  Cipriani,  and  under  the 
patronage  of  Dalton,  the  King's  librarian.  His 
first  important  commission  for  Dalton  was  that 
magnificent  series  of  his  engravings,  from  Guercino's 
original  drawings  within  the  Royal  Collection  at 
Windsor. 

I  am  so  fortunate  as  to  have  within  my  own 
hands  a  number  of  these  prints,  and   to  my   mind 

*  John  Raphael  Smith  (175 2-1 8 12)  is  an  engrave! 
not  to  be  passed  over  at  this  epoch.  Especially  to  be 
noted  is  his  vigorous  work  in  coloured  stipple. 


20  BARTOLOZZI 

nothing  that  the  master  produced   later — not  even 

the  C lytic  or  the  famous   Silence — can  equal  these 
in  freedom  and  mastery  of  line. 

Among  those  at  present  before  me — some  of 
which  I  am  fortunately  able  to  include  among  my 
illustrations — is  one  of  those  delightful  Scenes  of  music, 
of  which  there  are  several  examples,  and  which  I 
have  compared  already  with  Dalton's  harder  treat- 
ment of  the  same  subject ;  the  nude  baby  St.  John^ 
one  of  the  most  faultless  of  Bartolozzi's  delicious 
children  ;  the  same  saint  as  an  older  boy  of  some 
fourteen  years  ;  the  Psyche  and  Cupid,  a  subject  of 
which  the  engraver  sent  a  crayon  sketch  to  the  first 
Royal  Academy  ;  a  vigorously  handled  scene  of  an 
Italian  gambling  quarrel,  ending  with  the  upraised 
stiletto  ;  three  charming  prints  of  young  girls,  one 
seated  alone,  two  others  (Guercino's  daughters  ?) 
with  a  bird,  and  others  who  surround  a  baby  boy 
taking  his  first  steps ;  the  fine  group  of  ^een 
Esther  and  her  maids  before  Ahasuerus,  and  the  Al- 
mighty with  Cherubs,  of  which  I  possess  a  second 
example  slightly  tinted. 

Without  wishing  to  weary  the  reader  by  a  cata- 
logue I  must  briefly  mention  three  other  prints, 
also   from  Guercino,  in  my  own  collection,  whose 


Frovi  Giiercino  Engraved  by  F.  Bartolozzi 

INFANT   ST.   JOHN 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE   21 

firm  masterly  drawing  is  to  me  an  unending  delight ; 
the  Cupid  bending  over  a  fire^  whereon  his  bow  is 
thrown  ;  the  curious  scene  of  an  old  priest  and  woman 
with  knit  brows,  before  whom  a  youth  upholds  the 
slightly  sketched  plan  of  some  building  ;  and  the 
nude  figure  of  a  woman  reclining,  and  giving  her 
breast  to  a  babe, — this  last  a  masterpiece,  as  giving 
with  the  fewest  possible  lines  of  the  graver  a  perfect 
presentment  of  space  and  movement.  Indeed,  the 
freedom  and  simplicity  of  treatment  in  these  three 
engravings  could  scarcely  be  equalled  ;  and  again, 
the  exquisite  sense  of  line  in  the  naked  youth,  in  the 
second  mentioned,  who  stands  in  service  on  the 
priest,  shows  that  the  engraver  had  found  a  medium 
with  which  he  was  thoroughly  in  sympathy,  that  the 
severity  of  line  was  no  hindrance,  but  a  help  to  the 
graver  when  within  his  hand.  Though  to  many 
his  exquisite  stipple  productions  may  be  more  at- 
tractive, I  cannot  myself  help  feeling  that,  when 
Bartolozzi — obeying  the  dictates  of  fashion  and 
the  needs  of  his  purse — turned  aside  from  line  en- 
graving to  the  newer  methods,  he  abanaoned  the 
natural  bent  and  the  best  direction  of  his  genius. 

While  still,  however,  under  his  three  years'  con- 
tract  with    Dalton  the    beautiful    engraving,  after 


22  BARTOLOZZI 

Annibale  Caracci,  of  the  Virgin  and  Child  with  the 
little  S.  John  (known  as  The  Silence  from  the  Virgin's 
gesture),  as  well  as  the  Sleeping  Baby  Boy,  after 
Elizabetta  Sirani,  were  produced,  two  prints  which 
must  always  rank  among  the  finest  of  Bartolozzi's 
productions  in  line.  But  meanwhile  the  fashion 
for  Demarteau's  red  chalk  engravings,  after  Boucher 
and  Vanloo,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded  in  my 
first  chapter,  had  passed  from  Paris  to  London, 
introduced  there  by  Ryland  and  Picot,  who  had 
learnt  the  method  in  Paris  which  they  developed  in 
England  into  a  new  art. 

Angelica  KaufFman  was  then  at  the  height  of 
her  success.  Born  in  1741,  she  was  in  Venice 
(1764)  at  the  time  of  Bartolozzi's  migration  to 
London,  having  already,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three, 
gained  a  reputation  by  her  portraits  ;  and  in  the 
year  following  (1765)  she  came  herself  to  London, 
where,  under  the  cegis  of  Lady  Wentworth's 
introduction,  her  success  was  immediate  and 
brilliant.  Indeed,  this  fascinating  artist  and  beauti- 
ful woman  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  characters 
in  the  art-story  of  the  eighteenth  century  ;  and  her 
unhappy  marriage,  into  which  she  was  entrapped  by 
a  valet  who  passed  himself  oflF  as  his  master,  lends  a 


.liif^elica  Kaiiffman,  pinxt 


Thomas  Burke,  sculp,  (publ.  1787) 


ANGELICA   KAUFFMAX    IN   THE    CHARACTER   OF   "DESIGN 
LISTENING   TO    THE    INSPIRATION   OF   POETRY 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE   23 

melancholy  note  of  romance  to  her  otherwise 
brilliant  career. 

A  sense  of  refined  beauty,  and  especially  of  grace, 
lives  in  her  delicate  slender  figures,  and  finds  per- 
haps its  highest  expression  in  the  Vestal  Virgin 
{Die  Vestalin)  of  the  Dresden  Gallery,  where  she 
had  as  model  the  beautiful  Princess  ofCourland^  and 
in  that  delightful  portrait  of  herself  beside  Poetry, 
of  which  I  give  an  illustration.  But  though  portrai- 
ture, in  which  she  gained  her  first  success  at  Rome, 
remained  the  mainstay  of  her  art,  she  willingly  treated 
subjects  of  romance  (even  Sterne's  Sentimental 
Journey  occupies  her  brush  within  the  Hermitage  col- 
lection), and  herself  handled  the  graver, — as  witness 
her  portrait  of  the  great  classicist  Wilkelmann,  and 
her  reproduction  of  Correggio's  Marriage  of  S, 
Catherine. 

To  her  own  taste,  retrieved  from  weak  sentimen- 
tality by  its  abiding  sense  of  grace,  this  new  art  of 
stipple  would  naturally  appeal.  Seeing,  with  a 
woman's  quickness,  its  obvious  advantages,  she 
wisely  sought  for  the  best  engravers;  and  we  shall 
very  soon  find  Bartolozzi  occupied  in  reproducing 
the  charming  creations  of  her  pencil,  no  less  than 
sixty  plates  from  her  work — not  all  necessarily  by 


24  BARTOLOZZI 

his  hand — hdving  been  published  by  his  intelligent 
patron,  Alderman  Boydell. 

Stipple  engraving  is  really  based  upon  the  dot, 
and  the  term  stipple  is  applied  artistically  not  alone 
to  engraving  but  also  to  water-colour,  of  which  the 
late  Mr.  Hamerton  *  pointed  out  very  justly  that 
in  true  stipple  the  ground  is  left  to  play  between 
the  specks  of  added  colour.  We  saw  already  in  the 
early  English  engravers  the  use  of  the  dot  creeping 
in  to  enrich  the  line  work  ;  and  even  such  a  master 
of  line  as  was  Albert  DUrer  had  felt  the  possibilities 
of  stipple  in  this  direction. 

But  stipple  engraving,  as  practised  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  the  actual  off- 
spring of  the  French  chalk  engravings  of  Demarteau, 
originally  intended  to  reproduce  in  effect  the  chalk 
drawings  of  popular  artists  such  as  Boucher  and 
others,  but  developed  and  perfected  into  a  new  and 
beautiful  art  by  Ryland  and  his  contemporaries, 
among  whom  Bartolozzi  claims  in  this  art  a  leading 
place.  The  whole  process  has  been  described  in 
admirable  detail  by  Mr.  Tuer,t  who  may  be  usefully 
consulted  by  the  technical  student  :  but  it  may  be 

*  Hamerton's  "Graphic  Arts,"  chap.  xxvi.  p.  343. 
t   Op,  cit.  chap.  XX.  p.  82. 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE    25 

sufficient  here  to  say  that  the  outline  having  been 
traced,  and  then  dotted  in  upon  the  copper  plate  (for 
which  later  steel  came  to  be  substituted)  which  had 
been  already  prepared  with  an  etching  ground,  the 
shadows  are  then  put  in  with  dots  with  the  etch- 
ing point,  or  (in  the  case  of  steel  more  generally) 
with  the  graver  or  burin ;  and  the  plate  thus  prepared 
is  "  bitten  "  with  a  preparation  of  nitrous  or  (with 
steel)  of  nitric  acid  and  water,  until  the  acid  has  done 
the  work  intended,  the  finer  portions,  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  modelling  of  the  flesh,  being  stopped  out 
earlier  with  black  varnish. 

Of  course  this  brief  account  does  not  include  the 
whole  of  a  complicated  and  detailed  process :  suc- 
cessive bitings  were  often  needed  until  the  larger 
dots  could  be  induced  to  burst  over  into  each  other, 
thus  producing  an  intentional  effect  of  velvety  rich- 
ness. The  whole  plate  had  then  to  be  worked  over 
again  with  the  graver  to  receive  an  even  finish,  and 
should  any  portion  then  be  found  to  be  either 
scratched  or  too  dull  in  tone  the  steel  burnisher 
might  be  used  for  removing  these  marks,  or  lighten- 
ing up  ;  and  there  is  yet  to  come  into  our  notice 
such  technical  aids  as  hand- and  machine-rouletting, 
in  which  a  toothed  wheel  passed  over  the  plate  gives 


26  BARTOLOZZI 

mechanically  and  rapidly  the  dotted  or  stippled  sur- 
face. In  fact,  the  rapidity  of  treatment, — which 
Boydell,  the  well-known  publisher  of  prints  at  that 
period,  said  was  as  three  to  one  compared  to  line 
treatment, — was,  considered  commercially,  a  great 
and  obvious  recommendation  for  the  new  method. 

The  term  line  engraving  might  with  perfect  truth 
be  applied  to  etching,  which  is  really  line  work  with  a 
fine  etching  needle,  bitten  into  the  copper  with  acid  ; 
but  the  term  line  engraving  is  actually  applied  to  en- 
graving upon  copper  or  steel  plates  with  the  burin. 
Practically  there  is  an  immense  difference  between 
the  two  processes,  for  while  the  etching  needle  is 
very  free,  the  burin  or  graver  requires  considerable 
force,  and  will  turn  only  in  curves.*  Thus  the  very 
nature  of  this  last  process  is  restricted,  but  this  re- 
striction, this  absence  of  liberty,  is  not  without  its 
advantages  ;  it  is  a  kind  of  mental  discipline,  as 
Mr.  Hamerton  has  pointed  out,  to  the  engraver,  and 
gives  to  his  whole  art  a  quality  of  noble  severity. 

Form,  expressed  in  line,  is  thus  of  the  very 
essence  of  this  art ;  and,  in  fact,  the  work  of  the 
early   Italian  engravers  is    merely  shaded  outline; 

*  Yet  Bartolozzi  used  both  tools  freely,  as  explained 
in  my  Preface. 


^^-I^-"^  I' 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE   27 

while  in  Mantegna's  plates  the  organic  line,  which 
that  master  of  draughtsmanship  so  intensely  felt,  is 
aided  by  diagonal  shading.  The  same  treatment 
appears  in  some  of  Leonardo's  wonderful  drawings 
but  the  method  itself  is  really  a  poor  one,  never 
being  able  to  give  either  complete  modelling  or 
chiaroscuro  ;  and  one  is  astonished  to  find  Professor 
Legros  attempting,  in  later  years,  to  enforce  it  as  a 
method  of  training  for  young  students.  Professor 
Colvin,  speaking  on  this  subject,  very  justly  says  : 
"  This  is  a  method  unable  to  express  the  full  relief 
or  roundness  of  objects  in  nature,  and  that  the 
Italians  themselves  by-and-by  felt  the  poverty  of  the 
system  is  proved  by  the  fact  that,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  they  turned  eagerly  to  the 
works  of  Albert  Diirer." 

Durer  himself  aimed,  not  directly  at  chiaroscuro, 
but  at  rendering  with  entire  accuracy  the  actual 
shapes,  and  even  the  texture,  of  visible  objects.  His 
marvellous  graver  renders  in  pure  line  work  the 
gleam  of  polished  metal,  the  graining  of  wood,  the 
sinuous  growth  of  each  hair  in  a  beard  ;  and  every 
smallest  object  is  studied  and  reproduced  with  such 
loving  truth — a  hand-saw  in  the  Melancholia^  a  sawn 
tree-trunk  in  the   Knight  and  Deaih^  are   instances 


28  BARTOLOZZI 

among  many — that  furniture  could  be,  and  has  been, 
made  from  the  objects  which  accompany  his  figures. 
Yet  even  with  Durer  texture  is  only  successfully 
attained  when  the  subject  {e.g.y  metal  or  wood) 
adapts  itself  naturally  to  this  treatment,  and  chiaros- 
curo is  not  carried  through  either  in  his  work  or  that 
of  Van  Leyden  ,•  while  in  the  engravings  of  that 
master  of  line  work  and  contemporary  of  Rafaelle, 
Marcantonio  Raimondi,  tone,  texture, and  chiaroscuro 
(in  the  sense  of  shadows  produced  by  light  falling  at 
certain  angles)  are  calmly  and  contentedly  ne- 
glected, and  all  the  artist's  powers  of  observation 
seem  centred  on  the  beauty  and  vigour  of  the  nude 
forms,  and  the  superb  drawing  of  the  grand  folds  of 
drapery.  And  yet  we  scarcely  resent  this — so  com- 
pletely does  his  work  satisfy  our  sense  of  plastic 
beauty  in  the  Dido^  the  Lucret'ia^  the  splendid  vitality 
of  the  Eve  in  his  Temptation^  the  movement  and 
vigour  of  the  naked  soldier  who  runs,  with  drawn 
sword,  across  his  Massacre  of  the  Innocents-,  and  I 
believe  why  we  do  not  resent  it  (since  I  trust  no 
refractory  reader  will  here  question  my  premiss)  is 
that  this  art,  which  is,  in  its  very  nature  and 
essence,  an  art  of  form  and  shaded  outline,  is  here 
entirely  concerned  with  form  in  one  of  its  highest 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE    29 

manifestations  of  beauty — that  of  the  human  body ; 
while  the  work  of  the  modern,  who  attempts  all 
these  things  that  the  Italian  master  had  neglected, 
leaves  us  often  cold  and  indifferent.  For  the 
modern  engraver  follows  an  art  which,  developed 
through  the  later  Dutch,  has  no  such  liberty  of 
treatment,  but  is  expected  to  reproduce  the  painting 
or  design  before  him  in  all  its  qualities  of  texture  and 
values — working,  like  the  stipple  engraver,  upon  the 
etching  ground  or  the  prepared  steel  plate,  and 
biting  or  re-biting  the  plate  to  get  the  required 
quality  of  tone  :  whereas  Bartolozzi,  in  that  magnifi- 
cent series  of  plates  from  Guercino's  drawings  in 
the  Royal  collection  which  we  have  just  noticed,  is 
reproducing  in  pure  line  work  the  pencil  or  crayon 
of  the  painter  of  Aurora^  and  his  prints  give  us  the 
same  splendid  sense  of  line  as  we  have  found  with 
those  of  the  earlier  Raimondi. 

It  was  after  the  close  of  his  contract  with  Dalton 
that  Bartolozzi  engraved  for  Alderman  Boydell  one 
of  his  masterpieces,  the  Clyt'ic^  of  which  it  is  said  that 
he  remarked  when  finished — alluding  to  Sir  Robert 
Strange's  unjust  criticism  that  he  could  produce 
nothing  but  Benefit  Tickets — "Let  Strange  beat 
that  if  he  can  !  "     The  subject  is  treated  in  an  o\  ai. 


30  BARTOLOZZI 

and  the  nymph  beloved  of  Phoebus  is  seen  in  a 
reclining  attitude,  with  a  delicious  winged  Cupid 
standing  near  her,  whom  she  wards  off  with  an 
outstretched  thorn.  To  Bartolozzi  collectors  this 
print  is  to  be  commended  as  a  fine  example  of  his 
work,  to  be  included  in  their  collection  if  it  is  to  be 
complete. 

At  this  time  he  was  busy  for  his  new  patron, 
Boydell,  on  several  works  from  the  Italian  masters. 
Luca  Giordano's  Venus^  Cupid^  and  Satyr,  Dolci's 
Mater  Dolorosa,  Sassoferrato's  work,  and  Zucchero's 
Mary  §ueen  of  Scots,  an  example  of  which  I  have 
now  before  me,  a  very  finished  and  beautiful 
specimen  of  his  engraving,  but  with  a  good  deal  of 
cross-hatching  here  introduced.  John  Boydell  was 
himself  an  engraver,  and  a  man  of  very  remarkable 
taste  and  energy  of  character.  Born  in  1 719  he 
became  apprenticed  to  Toms,  the  engraver,  one  of 
whose  plates  (a  Hawarden  Castle)  had  by  chance 
come  into  the  boy's  hands,  and  excited  his  early 
admiration.  His  Bridge  Book — a  series  of  views 
near  London — brought  him  into  notice,  and  laid 
the  foundation  of  a  fortune  which  he  applied  most 
wisely  and  laudably  in  the  encouragement  of  English 
art,  and  the  development  of  English  native  talent, 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE    31 

which  was  at  that  time  too  much  ignored  in  favour 
of  prints  supplied  from  abroad. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  his  country,  which  is  not 
always  very  ready  to  acknowledge  merit  unless  pushed 
in  high  quarters,  that  Boy  dell's  rare  qualities  of  taste 
and  patriotism  were  appreciated.  He  achieved  a 
fortune,  became  Alderman  and  Lord  Mayor  of 
London,  and  published  in  his  life,  which  was  a  long 
one  (he  died  in  18 14),  close  upon  4500  plates  :  he 
was  an  early  patron  of  Bartolozzi's  genius,  and  my 
good  friend,  Mr.  Algernon  Graves,  whose  firm 
succeeded  to  his  great  business  in  Pall  Mall  East, 
tells  me  that  he  has  still  in  his  possession  the  plates 
which  Bartolozzi  produced  for  the  Alderman's 
commission. 

In  the  year  following  his  arrival  in  London 
Bartolozzi  had  joined  the  Incorporated  Society  of 
Artists,  and  exhibited  in  their  rooms  ;  and  three 
years  later  (1768)  saw  the  formation  of  the  Royal 
Academy,  of  which  he  was  an  original  member,  and 
for  which  he  engraved  the  Diplorna^  after  a 
drawing  by  Cipriani,  which  remains  one  of  his 
finest  efforts  in  line  work.  This  print  is  a  beautiful 
allegorical  design,  in  which  Art  appears  crowned  and 
enthroned,  and  Britannia  is  present,  assisted  by  her 


32  BARTOLOZZI 

lion.  In  the  Royal  Academy's  Second  Exhibition, 
his  print  of  the  head-piece  to  the  Diploma  was 
included,  together  with  the  original  drawing  for  it 
by  Cipriani,  which  last  is  now  among  the 
treasures  of  Burlington  House,  preserved  in  the 
very  best  condition. 

To  the  First  Exhibition  (of  1769)  Bartolozzi  had 
sent  his  Clytle^  drawn  from  Annibale  Caracci,  and  a 
Cupid  and  Psyche  in  crayon,  which  may  be  that 
engraved  later  showing  Psyche  with  a  dart.  Upon 
the  walls  of  his  living-rooms  in  London  at  the  period 
were  hung — with  the  landscapes  of  Vivares — his 
Clytie^  the  Silence^  and  some  of  his  engravings  after 
Guercino,  showing  what  work  of  his  own  most 
attracted  his  interest  and  affection, — work,  that  is,  in 
pure  line,  as  I  have  already  suggested. 

At  the  same  time  he  was  becoming  already 
interested  in  his  stipple  engravings  which  Ryland 
and  his  contemporaries  had  brought  into  fashion  in 
London,  and  very  soon  in  this  new  branch  of  his 
art  Bartolozzi  became  an  acknowledged  master.  Just 
as  in  his  line  engravings,  the  quality  that  attracts  us 
is  the  brilliancy  of  touch,  the  fire  and  energy  within 
each  stroke  of  the  graver, — as  witness  both  the 
Guercino  prints  and  that  5upe»l>    Vi^-^ln  and  ChilJ 


r^ 


G.  B.  Cipriani  del. 


BEAUTY 


F.  Bartolozzi,  sculp. 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE 


33 


with  S,  Elizabeth^  of  which  I  lately  acquired  a  copy- 
when  rummaging  in  my  old  friend  Corbini's  curio 
shop  at  Siena  ;  so  in  his  stipple  prints  it  is  the  soft- 
ness, the  richness,  and  depth  which  gives  the  pre- 
dominant note. 

In  his  line  work  the  swift  touch  of  the  etching- 
point  upon  the  copper  plate  has  been  compared  to 
the  contact  of  flint  and  steel.  But  in  the  stipple 
work,  wherein  this  softness,  this  rounded  modelling, 
and  subtlety  of  tone  was  of  the  essence  of  the  pro- 
cess, his  fancy  finds  full  play  in  a  languid  dream  of 
loveliness,  where  the  classic  figures  of  Amiconi's  or 
Cipriani's  design  [Euphrosyne^  Psyche  bathing  or  robing 
herselfy  Omphale^  Procrisy  Amphitrite^  and  Venus^  and 
the  Nymphs  of  Woodland  Streams^  or  'Beauty  seated 
enthroned)  find  expression.  Elsewhere  the  romantic 
subjects  which  he  took  from  Angelica  KaufFman 
— Shakespeare's  Birth  and  Fancy  scattering  flowers  over 
his  tomby  Tancred  and  Clorinda^  Griselda,  Hebe^  the 
charmingly  drawn  forms  in  Selim^  or  the  Shepherd's 
Moraly  and  Telemachus  and  Mentor^  or  the  Nymph  in 
the  still  more  delightful  plate  of  Horace,  occupy  his 
graver, 

A  certain  air  of  sentimentalism  appears  in  all 
this  work,    reproduced    from    the   fair    Angelica's 

c 


34  BARTOLOZZI 

designs,  and  seems  to  affect  even  the  morbid-looking 
eagle,  who  is  taking  his  liquid  refreshment  at  Hebe's 
hands  ;  it  was  not  far  from  the  age  when  Richard- 
son's novels  had  come  into  fashion,  when  "  Pamela" 
and  "  Clarissa "  became  of  interest  to  the  public, 
when  Sterne  wrote  his  *' Sentimental  Journey," 
and  across  the  Channel  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  was 
creating  a  fresh  emotional  current. 

But  in  his  portraits  and  subject  pictures,  en- 
graved from  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  our  Italian 
master  was  coming  into  contact  with  all  that  was 
best  and  most  virile  in  the  English  art  of  his  day  ; 
Lavinia,  Countess  Spencer  (whose  drawing  of 
Cupid  and  Psyche  Bartolozzi  engraved),  the  Hon 
Anne  Bingham^  the  Countess  of  Harrington  and 
her  children^  the  beautiful  Angelica  Kauffman 
herself,  whose  portrait  I  reproduce  elsewhere  from 
her  own  painting,  and  among  figure  subjects  the 
lovely  Thaisy  inspired  by  Dryden's  Ode,  and  no  less 
;;iharming  scene  of  Fenus  chiding  Cupid — these  are 
examples  among  many  ;  while  Wheatley  and  his 
somewhat  idealised  scenes  of  country  life  {The 
Deserted  Village^  The  Country  Girl  *  goes  reaping)  and 

*  His  lovely  wife  was  here  perhaps  his  model,  as  she  was 
certainly  in  the  delightful  print  of  Winter  (v.  List). 


SirJ.K^vnCi..;. 


F.  Bartolozzi,  sculp. 


THAIS 


ENGRAVING  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE  35 

Hamilton  give  another  side  of  English  contemporary 
art. 

The  traditions  of  his  early  Florentine  training, 
the  study  of  the  later  Italian  masters,  Domenichino, 
Guercino,  Pietro  da  Cortona,  and  the  voluptuous 
grace  of  Albano's  Nymphs  and  Cupids,  have  become 
blended  under  the  magic  of  his  graver  with  the 
vigorous  living  up-grov7th —  based  on  portraiture,  on 
personality,  and  the  fresh  impression  of  Nature — of 
the  English  School  of  his  day.  He  becomes  affiliated 
with  that  school  at  the  moment  when,  in  the  crea- 
tion of  its  Academy,  it  first  feels  and  asserts  its 
individuality,  without  losing  the  passion  for  classic 
beauty  of  form  which  he  had  brought  with  him 
from  the  land  of  his  birth.  The  result  is  an  art 
which  is  hybrid  in  a  sense,  but  curiously  and  in- 
tensely attractive  ;  and  this  double  sense  of  inspira- 
tion seems  to  me  to  be  what  places  Dartolozzi  alone, 
and  gives  to  his  work  a  special  interest  among  that 
of  the  many  talented  engravers  of  his  time.  I  ha^'e 
heard  that  work  described  by  a  severe  lecturer — 
whose  interests  seemed  to  end  with  the  trecento — as 
a  bastard  Italian  art.  But  as  in  the  Renaissance 
itself— which  entirely  escaped  this  latter's  sympathy 
— the   blending  of   Christian  asceticism   with    the 


36  BARTOLOZZI 

memories  of  antique  beauty  resulted  in  the  inspired 
creations  of  Leonardo  and  Correggio  and  Michel- 
angelo, so  here,  too,  strength  is  blended  with  sweet- 
ness without  being  overpowered  by  it.  It  is  a  far 
cry  from  the  masterly  and  virile  portraiture  of  Sir 
Joshua  to  the  baby-girl  Loves  of  Lady  Diana 
Beauclerc  ;  but  what  unites  them  both  is  the  great 
engraver's  passion  for  beauty  in  every  side  of  life, 
and  his  unerring  truth  of  drawing  in  the  human 
form. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  ENGLAND  OF  PITT  AND  HER 
ILLUSTRATORS 

WHAT,  we  may  ask  at  this  point  of  our 
survey,  was  this  England  where  Fran- 
cesco Bartolozzi  had  come  in  1764 
to  settle,  and  whose  art  we  have  just  seen  to  modify 
and  profoundly  influence  his  own  conception  ?  If  it 
was  the  epoch  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  of  Hopp- 
ner,  Gainsborough,  and  George  Romney  in  English 
portraiture,  it  was  also  the  period  of  Gillray,  Bun- 
bury,  and  Thomas  Rowlandson  in  English  political 
caricature.  George  III.  had  but  lately  (in  1760) 
ascended  the  throne,  with  the  scarcely  concealed 
intention  of  enforcing  a  stronger  and  more  personal 
government.  We  are  told  that  in  his  boyhood  and 
youth  the  Princess  of  Wales,  his  mother,  often 
exclaimed    to   him  :    "  George,   be    King  !  " — and 


38  BARTOLOZZI 

that  when  the  Peace  of  Paris  was  approved  (1763) 
by  the  "  King's  Party  "  within  the  Commons,  in 
the  teeth  of  Pitt's  denunciation,  she  was  able  to 
cry  :  "  At  last  my  son  is  King  !  " 

But,  in  spite  of  a  House  of  Commons  which 
had  become  subservient  to  Court  influence,  a  new 
power  was  then  making  its  appearance  in  English 
public  life — the  power  of  the  Press. 

Dissatisfied  with  the  conduct  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  unable  to  find  expression  in  a  House  of 
Commons  where  the  majority  were  place-men,  the 
masses  were  inclined  to  give  vent  to  their  feelings 
in  riot  and  violence  ;  but  a  yet  more  effective  outlet 
for  this  deep-felt  discontent  was  found  when  the 
journals  of  the  period  indulged  in  most  bitter  and 
personal  attacks  on  the  Ministry,  with  the  King's 
favourite.  Lord  Bute,  at  its  head. 

In  No.  45  of  the  North  "Briton  Wilkes  had 
ventured  to  criticise  and  condemn  the  Speech  from 
the  Throne  at  the  opening  of  the  Session  ;  and  in 
1764 — the  very  year  of  Bartolozzi's  arrival — had 
been  compelled  to  fly  to  France,  and  been  expelled 
from  the  House  of  Commons.  The  corrupt  Houses 
of  Legislature  commenced  a  campaign  against  the 
Press,  which  was  bitterly  resented  throughout  the 


THE  ENGLAND  OF  PITT  39 

country  ;  a  strong  feeling  became  aroused,  and  the 
cry  of  "Wilkes  and  Liberty!"  was  heard  in 
London  streets. 

Subsequent  events  led  to  the  complete  failure  of 
the  prosecution  instituted  against  the  assumed  author 
of  the  famous  political  "  Letters  of  Junius,"  and 
the  triumphant  return  of  the  ejected  member,  who 
became  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and  employed 
the  talents  of  Cipriani  and  Bartolozzi  upon  the 
ticket  of  the  ball  which  he  gave  (April  17,  1775) 
at  the  Mansion  House. 

This  is  a  charming  oval  composition,  quite  in 
Cipriani's  best  manner,  representing  a  draped 
female  figure  of  great  beauty,  with  the  horn  of  plenty 
and  Mercury's  Caduceus^  watching  the  dance  of 
three  delicious  little  Loves ;  while  two  others  descend 
from  heaven  with  gifts,  and  the  whole  is  encircled 
in  a  garland  of  English  oak.  This  plate  was  a 
most  successful  one,  and  has  been  more  than  once 
re-engraved  (it  appeared  in  red  in  1796);  and  John 
Wilkes  himself,  in  writing  to  a  friend  at  the  time 
of  its  issue,  said:  "  Li  my  opinion  it  does  honour 
to  the  two  great  artists,  Cipriani  and  Bartolozzi, 
and  to  a  country  which  distinguishes  their  merit, 
and  I  hope  in  time  will  emulate  it," 


40  BARTOLOZZI 

This  is,  in  fact,  the  period  when  the  Press  really 
became  a  power  in  England,  and  whence  the  great 
journals  of  political  opinion,  The  Times,  The 
Morning  Chronicle^  The  Morning  Post,  date  their 
origin  ;  and  though  the  ill-advised  Stamp  Act, 
which  cost  England  her  splendid  American 
Colonies,  belongs  to  this  very  time,  yet  even 
under  the  weak  and  bad  Government — for  which 
she  paid  dearly — England  possessed  statesmen, 
such  as  Edmund  Burke  or  the  elder  Pitt, 
who  supported  the  claim  of  America  to  self- 
taxation,  and  saw,  too,  the  growth  of  public  opinion 
outside  the  House  of  Commons,  which  found 
expression  in  the  great  journals  I  have  mentioned. 
One  of  the  finest  works — though  not  perhaps 
the  most  popular — which  ever  employed  Barto- 
lozzi's  graver  was  his  Death  of  the  Earl  oj 
Chatham,  from  the  well-known  painting  by  John 
Singleton  Copley,  R.A.,  which  depicted  this 
Tnemorable  scene  in  English  history.  The  old 
statesman  had  made  a  supreme  effort  to  reach 
the  House  of  Lords  in  order  to  denounce  the 
war,  and  entered  supported  by  Mr.  WiUiam  Pitt 
and  Viscount  Mahon,  his  son  and  son-in-law ; 
'^ut  the  physical  fatigue  involved  proved  fatal  to 


i^*v■^^--^>^::^ 


THE  ENGLAND  OF  PITT  41 

him,  and,  after  an  impassioned  speech,*  as  he  was 
about  to  reply  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  he  fell 
back  in  convulsions. 

Copley's  painting,  and  Bartolozzi's  famous  print, 
depict  this  most  dramatic  scene  in  English 
political  history  at  that  moment, — though,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  Earl  did  not  actually  die  till 
some  weeks  later.  The  House  is  crowded  with 
figures,  who  are  grouped  around  the  dying  states- 
man— no  less  than  sixty  contemporary  portraits 
being  introduced — and  the  print,  though  not  one 
of  the  most  popular,  is  one  of  the  most  finished  of 
Bartolozzi's  engravings. 

Bartolozzi  received  by  his  agreement  with  Copley 
jf  2000  for  this  engraving,  but  complained  that  even 
this  sum  did  not  really  pay  him,  as  the  plate  took 
some  years  to  finish,  and  he  had  heavy  out-of-pocket 
expenses  for  the  work  of  assistants — that  of  one  of 
them,  named  Testolini,  having  to  be  erased  and 
done  over  again  to  a  large  extent,  though  Delattre, 
another  of  Bartolozzi's  pupils,  gave  valuable  help  in 

*  "Was  England,"  he  cried,  "to  stoop  so  low  as  to 
tell  her  ancient  enemy — *  Take  all  we  have  !  Give  us 
only  peace  ! ' "  He  referred  to  France  ;  with  the  States 
he  sought  conciliation. 


42  BARTOLOZZI 

its  completion.*  The  plate  was  published  by  sub- 
scription in  April  of  1780 ;  it  had  considerable 
success,  and  the  remainder  of  the  issue  was  bought 
in  later  years  by  Messrs.  Graves  of  Pall  Mall. 

If  we  now  turn  to  the  social  life  of  England 
at  this  time,  we  shall  find  it  marked  by  a  certain 
coarseness  of  fibre,  amounting  sometimes  to  absolute 
brutality  and  indecency.  We  may  not  really  now 
possess  a  very  much  higher  standard,  but  we  are  cer- 
tainly upon  the  surface  more  refined,  more  decorous. 
The  age  of  Fox,  of  Burke,  and  Chatham  in  politics, 
of  Smollett  and  Fielding  in  romance,  set  scarcely  a 
limit  to  its  language  or  a  veil  to  its  emotions. 

The  caricaturists  of  this  period  are  a  study  in 
themselves,  but  their  work  all  points  to  the  same 
conclusion. 

Hogarth  might  here  serve  as  an  instance,  but  that 
his  definite  aim  as  a  moralist,  his  purpose  of  enforc- 
ing some  lesson  of  conduct,  makes  his  evidence  less 
direct  than  that  of  the  men  who  simply  copied  without 
arriere  pensee  of  any  kind,  but  coarsely  or  comically, 
the*llfe  around  them — such  draughtsmen  as  were 
Bunbury,  Gillray,  or  Rowlandson. 

*  In  Bartolozzi's  studio,  now  filled  with  pupils,  De- 
lattre  had  become  a  sort  of  chief  assistant.    {See  chap,  v.) 


THE  ENGLAND  OF  PITT  43 

James  Gillray  *  deals  to  a  large  extent — though  by 
no  means  exclusively — with  political  subjects,  and 
his  sketches,  dating  from  1779  onwards,  are  as 
clever  as  they  are  coarse.  The  younger  Pitt  and 
Fox — the  latter  often  with  that  familiar  oratoric 
gesture  of  clenched  and  upraised  fist, — Edmund 
Burke,  spectacled  and  professor-like,  and  Lord 
North  are  frequent  figures  ;  and  towards  the  cen- 
tury's close  Buonaparte  himself  begins  to  appear,  in 
his  uniform  as  First  Consul,  with  cocked  hat  and 
tricolour  sash,  beside  an  enormously  stout  Josephine 
in  flowing  classic  drapery,  while  behind  them  at 
the  banquet  stand  a  sinister  and  gigantic  line  of 
ferocious-looking  Guards. 

A  whole  series  deals  with  the  Napoleonic  Empire, 
and  the  unflinching  resistance  of  England  to  its  claims 
is  reflected  in  these  cartoons,  two  very  clever  plates 
being  the  ^^  Reception  of  Citizen  *  Folpone^  (Charles 
James  Fox  ?)  at  Paris  "  and  the  "  Handwriting  on 
the  Wally^  where  Napoleon  sees  his  fall  fore- 
shadowed ;  v/hile  among  the  non-political  subjects 
yohn  Bull  and  his  family  landing  at  Boulogne  is  full 
of  clever  characterisation.     Gillray's  sketches  form, 

*  Gillray  studied  at  one  time  under  Bartolozzi  :  he 
had  previously  been  a  strolling  player. 


44  BARTOLOZZI 

indeed,  a  most  valuable  commentary — taken  from  the 
popular  British  stand-point — on  the  troubled  politi- 
cal history  of  this  period  ;  indescribably  coarse 
though  they  often  are,  they  are  redeemed  by  their 
humorous  insight,  vigour  of  drawing,  and  enthusi- 
astic patriotism. 

We  come  to  feel,  in  studying  them,  that  this 
race — vi^ho  sided  vi^ith  Wilkes  in  his  demand  for  the 
free  expression  of  public  opinion,  who  supported 
Pitt  in  his  great  struggle  against  an  overshadowing 
European  despotism — had,  above  all,  the  quality  of 
virility.  They  were  a  stiff-necked  and  sturdy 
generation, — these  island  forefathers  of  ours, — proud 
of  their  ancestral  inheritance  of  liberty  ;  and  a  certain 
"  robustiousness"  (if  I  may  coin  such  a  term)  of 
temperament  shows  itself  even  in  their  pleasures, 
which  are  generally  of  an  open-air  and  somewhat 
violent  nature.  The  writer  of  a  clever  little  article 
on  Thomas  Rowlandson.  in  one  of  the  earlier 
numbers  of  The  Conno'isseuVy  has  worked  out 
this  view  with  what  seems  to  me  entire  truth. 
"  The  England  of  Rowlandson  was,  it  must  be 
remembered,  a  very  different  England  from  that  in 
which  we  now  live.  Rough,  jovial,  and  robust, 
both  in  mind  and   body,  men  were  anything  but 


THE  ENGLAND  OF  PITT  45 

averse  to  pleasantries  and  witticisms,  which  would 
to-day  be  characterised  as  coarse  and  outrageous.  Few 
people  showed  themselves  anxious  to  reform  their 
neighbours,  and  if  occasionally  they  did  so  public 
opinion  extended  small  support  to  such  efforts.  The 
race  was  strong,  and  had  small  sympathy  for  weak- 
ness in  any  form  or  shape,  and  no  mercy  if  it 
scented  hypocrisy  or  cant.  All  this  may  seem  a 
digression,  but  to  make  a  just  estimate  of  Rowland- 
son's  work  it  is  necessary  to  bear  these  things  in 
mind." 

For  Thomas  Rowlandson,  born  {in  1766)  just 
into  this  period,  is  as  coarse  in  his  way  as  Gillray, 
but  has — what  Gillray  had  not — a  natural  feeling 
for  beauty.  These  creatures  of  his  scenes  of 
Comedy — drawn  boldly  in  outline  with  the  reed  pen 
dipped  in  Indian  ink  and  vermilion,  with  the 
shadows  then  washed  in,  and  the  whole  slightly 
tinted  in  colour — seem  full-blooded,  vigorous,  over- 
flowing with  animal  life  and  energy.  His  women 
above  all  are  delicious.  Rather  voluptuous,  perhaps, 
5ind  full  in  form,  but  yet  indescribably  charming  in 
their  mob  caps  or  those  big  "  picture  "  hats  that 
George  Morland  loved,  in  their  tight  sleeves  and 
high-waisted  gowns  falling  in  long  folds  abuut  their 


46  BARTOLOZZI 

limbs, — their  eyes  sparkling  with  roguery,  and  their 
whole  being  breathing  the  charm  of  sex.  I  bought 
myself  some  years  ago  an  engraving  by  Rowland- 
son  of  three  young  girls,  which  might  have  been  a 
portrait  group  by  Gainsborough  or  Hoppner,  so 
refined  and  beautiful  was  the  treatment ;  but 
perhaps  the  type  I  have  described  above  finds  closer 
illustration  in  the  women  of  his  humorous  sketches — 
in  LwA-wry  (typified,  for  this  artist,  by  breakfast  in  bed), 
Housebreakers^  The  Inn  Yard  on  Fire  (where  the 
ladies  are  making  a  very  impromptu  exit),  in  the 
lovely  model  of  the  Artist  disturbed^  and  (for  women 
of  fashion)  in  the  series  of  the  Comforts  of  Bath, 

Lady  Hamilton  at  Home  is  too  delightful  to  be 
omitted  without  mention,  too  broadly  humorous  to 
be  typical  of  Rowlandson  as  a  "feminist."  Sir 
William  appears  here  enormously  stout,  and  suffer- 
ing from  an  acute  attack  of  gout  j  while  his  swollen 
foot  reposes  on  a  stool,  the  lovely  Emma,  in  very 
classic  garb,  is  watering  a  flower-pot,  and  Miss 
Cornelius  Knight,  a  contemporary  authoress,  also 
dressed  after  the  antique,  touches  the  strings  of  a 
lyre,  and  warbles  poems  of  her  own  composition. 
\x.  is  almost  the  very  scene  described  by  Mrs.  St. 
George,  during  a  visit  to  Dresden  in  1800.  when 


THE  ENGLAND  OF  PITT  47 

Lord  Nelson  was  of  the  company.  "Sir  William 
is  old,  infirm,  all  admiration  of  his  wife.  After 
dinner  we  had  several  songs  in  honour  of  Lord 
Nelson,  written  by  Miss  Knight,  and  sung  by  Lady 
Hamilton.  She  pufFs  the  incense  full  in  his  face, 
but  he  receives  it  with  pleasure  and  sniflfs  it  up 
very  cordially." 

Probably  it  was  this  facility  in  humorous  sketching, 
combined  with  his  extreme  carelessness  of  life, 
which  alone  prevented  Rowlandson  from  becoming 
one  of  the  greatest  artists  of  his  period.  Less 
hostile  to  France  than  Gillray,  perhaps  on  account 
of  his  training  in  a  Parisian  studio,  the  legacy  left 
him  by  a  French  aunt,  who  had  been  most  kind  to 
him  when  in  Paris,  was  all  lost  at  the  gambling 
tables ;  and  on  another  occasion,  after  losing  in  the 
same  way  all  he  possessed,  he  sat  down  coolly  to  his 
work  with  the  remark, — "  I've  played  the  fool,  but 
here"  (raising  that  facile  pencil  of  his)  "is  my 
resource  !  "  And  the  qualities  which  hindered  him 
horn  taking  place  beside  Reynolds  or  Romney  at 
least  gave  us  these  inimitable  sketches,  in  which  we 
recover  the  Hfe  of  that  epoch  in  England. 

And  this,  too,  was  the  life  into  which  Bartolozzi 
entered   on    his   arrival   in    London    in    1764.     A 


48  BARTOLOZZI 

vio-orous  and  virile  race,  coarse  sometimes  to  the 
very  verge  of  brutality,  but  full  of  sap  and  fresh 
energy ;  proud  of  their  traditional  liberty,  and 
prompt  to  rise  when  it  was  threatened  by  a  corrupt 
legislature  at  home,  or  by  the  threat  of  foreign 
invasion, — this  was  the  full  tide  of  life  into  which 
Bartolozzi  found  himself  now  thrown.  Under 
Dalton's  patronage,  and  with  the  position  and 
prestige  of  engraver  to  the  king,  his  success  was 
immediate  ;  but  we  should  be  unfair  to  the  England 
of  his  time  if  we  judged  her  possibilities  of  culture 
only  from  the  standpoint  of  a  Rowlandson  or 
Gillray. 

That  tradition  or  classic  life  and  learning,  whose 
up-growth  I  have  traced  in  my  Italian  series,*  had 
come  from  Padua,  Florence,  Ferrara,  and  Rome  to 
find  a  new  home  among  the  scholars  of  the  country 
which  had  welcomed  Erasmus.  For  two  centuries 
the  classics  had  been  the  standard  of  culture  at  the 
Universities ;  the  style  of  those  writers  who  aimed 
at  polish  and  lucidity  was  modelled  on  Cicero, 
Virgil,  Lucan  ;  and  the  antique  was  accepted  both 
by  artist  and  collectors  as  a  subject  of  unequalled 

*  "The  Renaissance  in  Italian  Art,"  3  vols.,  1889- 
1 90 1.    Messrs.  Simpkin  Marshall.     London. 


THE  ENGLAND  OF  PITT  49 

interest.  Even  into  a  later  age  the  same  passion 
for  classicism  remained  predominant.  John  Flax- 
man's  drawings  *  took  their  inspiration  from  Homer 
or  Hesiod,  and  seem  like  transcripts  from  Grecian 
bas-reliefs ;  and  where  modern  British  statesmen 
cultivate  golf  or  orchids,  in  Disraeli's  "  Henrietta 
Temple " — that  beautiful  delineation  of  human 
passion — Mr.  Temple  solaces  his  leisure  hours  at 
Pisa  with  the  contemplation  of  antique  gems.  Even 
apart  from  our  leading  politicians,  who  thinks  now 
of  settling  in  sleepy  old  Pisa  to  study  and  collect 
antiques  ?  The  hurried  modern  tourist  generally 
finds  one  day  enough  to  scramble  through  her  Campo 
Santo,  Baptistery,  Cathedral,  and  Campanile,  and  if 
time  presses  he  is  disposed  to  "  do  "  these  between 
two  trains.  This  fashion  for  classicism  yielded 
before  the  impulse  towards  mediaevalism,  heralded 
by  Scott  in  romance  and  John  Ruskin  in  art ;  and 
though  it  still  claims  its  votaries  (among  whom  I 
very  humbly  count  myself)  it  no  longer  stands  alone 
upon  the  pedestal  of  culture. 

*  See,  for  instance,  "  Compositions  from  the  I/:a^ 
and  Odyssey  of  Homer,"  by  John  Flaxman,  R.A.;  out- 
line drawings,  beautifully  reproduced  by  Messrs.  Bell 
and  Daldy  in  1870. 

D 


50  BARTOLOZZI 

But  then  it  included  in  its  attraction  all  those  who 
could  rise  above  the  rowdyism  of  Rowlandson's  * 
politicians,  sailors,  foxhunters,  and  peasants.  Some 
of  Sir  Joshua's  finest  paintings  show  classic  influence 
both  in  treatment  and  subject ;  and  Romney  prefers 
to  introduce  as  Ariadne^  Euphrosyne^  or  a  roving 
Bacchante^  that  fairest  Emma,  whose  classic  taste 
as  Lady  Hamilton  we  have  just  seen  Rowlandson  to 
satirise.  Sir  William's' Collection  of  antiques  was 
known  to  be  very  fine,  and  was,  says  Mr.  Grego, 
a  valuable  addition  later  to  those  of  the  British 
Museum  ;  while  a  letter  from  Mrs.  St.  George 
describes  his  lovely  wife's  impersonation  of  the  best 
statues  and  paintings  extant,  "in  which,  her  hair 
short,  dressed  like  an  antique,  her  gown  a  simple 
calico  chemise,  very  easy  in  the  sleeves,  she  assumes 
the  attitude,  expression,  and  drapery  with  great 
fidelity,  swiftness,  and  accuracy."  The  prints  of 
these!  classic  dances  of   Nelson's  enchantress  are 

*  See,  for  instance,  his  Repeal  of  the  Test  Act,  Grog  on 
^oardf  Foxhunters  Relaxing,  and  The  Ale  House  Door, 

t  One  of  these,  in  Mrs.  Hansard's  collection,  shows 
her  reposing ;  in  another,  with  a  tambourine,  she  whirls 
like  a  Bacchante.  See  also  J.  Grego's  "  Rowlandson  the 
Caricaturibt,"  vol.  ii.  p.  312. 


H|BHH|| 

1 

?i 

^^B 

4 

a 

1 

1^ 

■i 

H 

^^^^^^^B 

THE  ENGLAND  OF  PITT  51 

very  beautiful,  and  of  value  now  ;  but  I  only  men- 
tion them  here  as  showing  how  the  classic  fashion 
was  then  accepted  in  cultured  circles  in  England. 

It  is  just  here  that  Bartolozzi  finds  his  place. 
His  lovely  Thais  (see  my  illustration),  and  his 
Venus  chiding  Cupid  are  taken  from  Sir  Joshua's 
designs.  Cipriani  supplied  him  with  countless  suo- 
jects  from  the  antique  [Hercules  and  Omphale^ 
Hebe^  the  two  plates  of  Psyche  going  to  Bathe 
and  dressing  after  the  Bathy  the  Marriage  of 
Cupid  and  Psyche^  and  many  others)  ;  and  in  their 
series  of  the  Marlborough  Gems,*  drawn  by  Cipriani 
and  engraved  by  Bartolozzi,  the  two  friends  had 
before  them  one  of  the  finest  English  collections. 
Finally,  Angelica  KaufFman  herself  mingles  with 
her  scenes  of  romance — such  as  Griselda  or  Tancred 
and  Clorinda — others  of  a  purely  classic  inspiration, 
Telemachus  and  Mentor^  Horace^  and  The  Nursing  of 
Bacchus.  Her  Nymphs  Sporting  are  the  twin  sisters 
of  Cipriani's  Comedy  ,•  and  in  her  lovely  self-portrait 
she  has  robed  herself  in  classic  dress  to  receive  the 
message  of  inspiration. 

*  The  Marlborough  Gems  themselves  were  sold  later 
(1875)  at  Messrs.  Christie's  for  ^£3 5,000. 


CHAPTER  IV 
BARTOLOZZI  IN  LONDON  AND  LISBON 

BARTOLOZZI,  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  from 
the  first  years  of  his  residence  in  London 
he  was  overwhelmed  with  commissions, 
found  time  to  share  in  that  social  life  of  the  time 
which  we  have  seen  reflected,  and  perhaps  accen- 
tuated, in  the  work  of  the  caricaturists. 

He  was  a  visitor  at  Holland  House,  which  was 
then  a  social  centre  for  men  and  women  of  culture ; 
and  when  in  1780  he  moved  into  his  house  at  North 
End,  Fulham,  the  studio  where  he  worked  with  his 
pupils  was  already  a  favourite  resort  of  amateurs  and 
art  patrons. 

Whether  the  presence  of  these  fashionable  idlers 
aided  his  work,  and  whether  the  excessive  production 
improved  its  quality,  may  be  open  to  doubt ;  but 
the  latter  became  a  necessity  from  his  habits  of  life, 


IN  LONDON  AND  LISBON         53 

in  which  a  certain  carelessness  of  money  rather  than 
extravagance  was  combined  with  the  most  open- 
handed  generosity. 

Mr.Tuer  relates*  that  a  day's  outing  with  Cipriani 
cost  the  engraver  thirty  guineas,  and  that  his  habit 
was  to  carry  his  gold  loose  in  one  waistcoat  pocket ; 
while  his  generous  help  to  the  poor  around  him  in 
Fulham,  and  to  needy  artists,  while  it  illustrates  the 
fine  side  of  his  character,  seems  to  have  been  in  some 
cases  imposed  upon. 

His  character  seems  that  of  a  thorough  artist, 
open,  generous,  devoted  to  his  work,  and  capable — 
without  one  thought  of  jealousy — of  warmly  appre- 
ciating what  he  felt  to  be  good  in  the  work  of 
others ;  and,  therefore,  I  shall  touch  very  slightly 
here  upon  the  story  of  his  quarrel  with  Strange, 
because  the  bad  feeling  seems  to  have  been  all  on 
one  side,  and  Bartolozzi's  own  share  in  it  to  have 
been  a  very  small  one.  That  Dalton  himself  was 
a  very  sharp  man  of  business  seems  certain,  and  that 
he  may  have  used  his  oi^cial  position  as  the  King's 
Librarian,  to  prevent  Strange  having  access  to  pic- 
tures in  Italy  which  the  latter  wanted  to  engrave, 
seems  more  than  probable. 

*  Op.  cif.f  chap.  i.  p.  11. 


54  BARTOLOZZI 

But  all  the  evidence  seems  to  show  that  Bartolozzi 
was  a  stranger  to  the  whole  transaction,  and  had 
himself  fomid  that  in  dealing  with  Dalton  he  had 
suffered  from  a  lack  of  business  experience.  What 
fanned  Strange's  resentment  with  the  Italian  engraver 
into  actual  hostility  was  the  fact  ^that,  when  the 
Royal  Academy  was  formed,  he  found  Bartolozzi 
made  a  member,  and  himself  left  out ;  and  in 
his  "Inquiry  into  the  Rise  and  Establishment  of 
the  Royal  Academy  "  he  went  so  far  as  to  charge 
Bartolozzi  with  having  obtained  his  friend  Cipriani's 
assistance  in  the  production  of  his  Academy  paint- 
ing. We  have  seen,  however,  that  Bartolozzi  had 
included  painting  in  his  Florentine  training,  and  that 
his  whole  work  bears  evidence  to  his  superb  drawing 
of  the  figure  ;  whereas  Strange,  though  a  brilliant 
engraver,  appears  from  all  accounts  as  a  weak 
draughtsman. 

Bartolozzi,  when  pressed  by  his  friends  to  reply 
to  this  personal  attack,  steadily  declined  to  take  any 
notice  of  it  whatever  ;  and  in  later  years  Sir  Robert 
Strange,  though  still  harbouring  his  resentment 
against  Dalton,  seems  to  have  at  length  done  full 
justice  to  Bartolozzi,  both  as  artist  and  man. 

The  latter's  studio  was  now  filled  with  pupils — 


IN  LONDON  AND  LISBON  55 

some  of  whose  work  I  shall  take  in  detail  in  my 
next  chapter.  For  thirty  years  (1769  to  1 799)  he 
was  a  frequent  exhibitor  at  the  Royal  Academy. 
An  untiring  worker,  he  is  related  to  have  been  fre- 
quently employed  on  his  engravings  in  hand  till  late 
at  night,  and  back  at  his  work  again  by  six  in  the 
morning ;  and  he  must,  during  this  period,  have 
been  making  large  sums  of  money,  though  without 
doubt  the  publishers  who  employed  his  talent  made 
much  larger. 

He  had  his  family  now  with  him  j  he  must  at  this 
time  have  become  a  freemason,  and  had  started  his 
son  Gaetano  as  a  print  publisher  in  Great  Titchfield 
Street,  under  the  name  of  F.  Bartolozzi  and  Co.* 

Gaetano  Bartolozzi,  whose  birth  in  Rome  we 
have  noted  (chap,  i.),  had  married  in  1795,  and  one 
of  his  daughters  by  this  marriage  became  famous  in 
the  next  century  as  the  great  dancer,  Madame 
Vestris ;  but  his  passion  for  musical  society  and  his 
indifference  to  business  had  landed  Gaetano  in  money 

•  The  Triumph  of  Venus  is  inscribed — "  Published  as 
the  Act  directs  March  i,  1787,  by  F.  Bartolozzi." 
Here  he  is  his  own  publisher.  The  print  of  Masonic 
Charity  (Baron  de  Worms'  Coll.)  is  engraved  by 
*<  Brother  Bartolozzi." 


56  BARTOLOZZI 

difficulties,  and  in  1797  the  entire  stock  of  his  plates 
and  prints  had  to  be  sold  by  auction  at  Christie's.* 

Perhaps  it  was  this  disappointment,  combined  with 
the  financial  pressure  which  it  brought  upon  him  ; 
perhaps  the  claims  of  the  importunate  hangers-on, 
whom  his  generosity  had  (as  I  have  hinted)  settled 
upon  him  ;  or,  perhaps,  a  craving  to  see  again,  before 
his  life  closed  in,  the  myrtles  and  vines  and  olive- 
yards  and  deep  blue  skies  of  the  South — the  craving 
which  those  who  have  known  the  South  intimately 
find  sometimes  to  become  insistent,  almost  intoler- 
able, and  which  the  poet  Tennyson  expressed  with 
such  intimate  feeling  in  those  lines  whose  thought 
may  have  been  already  in  our  artist's  mind  : 

"  Though  Power  should  make  from  land  to  land 
The  name  of  Britain  doubly  great — 
Tho^  every  channel  of  the  State 
Should  almost  ckoke  with  with  golden  sand-^ 

Yet  waft  me  from  the  harbour'* s  mouth 
Wild  wind!     I  seek  a  warmer  sk^j 
And  1  will  see  before  I  die 
The  palms  and  temples  of  the  South.** 

*  Bartolozzi's  delightful  print  of  a  sleeping  child  is 
from  his  tiny  granddaughter,  later  Mme.  de  Vestris. 


IN  LONDON  AND  LISBON         57 

In  any  case,  not  even  the  brilliant  position  which 
he  had  achieved  in  London  could  now  satisfy  him. 
He  accepted  the  offer  which  had  been  twice  made 
by  the  Prince  Regent  of  Portugal,  with  the  promise 
€1  a  pension  and  knighthood,  and  in  November  of 
1802  quitted  England  for  ever. 

He  seems,  in  fact,  to  have  felt  himself  that,  though 
his  gains  in  London  were  considerable  his  expenses 
also  were  heavy,  and  he  had  many  claims  upon  him  ; 
while  in  Lisbon,  though  his  pension  was  compara- 
tively small,  his  outgoings  were  equally  so.*  "In 
England,"  he  said  to  a  visitor  from  that  country 
after  his  arrival  in  Lisbon,  "  I  was  always  in  debt 
for  the  honours  showered  on  my  talents,  and  was 
quite  tired  of  work.  Here  I  go  to  Court,  see  the 
King,  have  many  friends,  and  on  my  salary  can 
keep  my  horse  and  drink  my  wine.  In  England  it 
would  not  allow  me  a  jackass  and  a  pot  of  porter." 

But  evil  days  were  coming  quickly  upon  the  new 
country  of  his  adoption.  In  October  of  1807 
France,  under  Napoleon's  guidance,  agreed  with 
Spain  to  divide  Portugal  between  them  ;  and  the 
reigning  House  of  Braganza  fled  from  Lisbon  to 

*  See  Tucr,  op.  cit.y  chap,  i.,  for  details  of  his  life  at 
Lisbon. 


58  BARTOLOZZI 

Brazil.  But  this  move  on  the  part  of  France  was 
only  the  prelude  to  the  annexation  of  Spain  herself. 
England  supported  by  her  armies  the  splendid 
courage  of  the  Spanish  revolt  against  this  usurpa- 
tion ;  and  the  campaign  which  ensued  ended  in  the 
French  being  eventually  driven  from  the  Peninsula. 
Gillray,  as  usual,  hits  off  the  public  sentiment  in 
England  exactly  in  one  of  his  clever  sketches.  The 
Spanish  patriots,  including  even  women  and  priests, 
are  attacking  the  French,  and  at  their  side  a  sturdy 
British  soldier  runs  forward  to  help  the  former  with 
his  bayonet. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  our  veteran  engraver 
would  not  have  secured  a  better  provision  of  peace 
for  his  old  age  by  remaining  in  England — the  one 
European  country  at  that  time  whose  soil  had  not 
been  overrun  by  Napoleon's  armies  ;  and  Bartolozzi 
seems  up  to  his  life's  close  to  have  had  the  hope  of 
revisiting  the  country  of  his  earlier  adoption.  In  a 
letter,  written  in  1814,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six,  to 
his  old  pupil,  James  Minasi,  he  says:  "I  was  in 
hopes  last  summer  of  seeing  London  once  more  ; " 
and  his  devoted  pupil — whom  I  shall  notice  more 
in  detail  in  the  next  chapter — in  sending  this  letter 
to  the  New  Monthly^   adds  :    "  Though  he  makes 


IN  LONDON  AND  LISBON  59 

no  complaints  of  his  situation,  yet  it  must  be  evident, 
from  the  whole  tenour  of  his  epistle,  that  he  is  fast 
sinking  into  the  grave  without  those  comforts  to 
which  his  age  and  eminence  justly  entitle  him." 

Yet  gloomy  though  the  letter  here  referred  to 
may  seem — in  one  passage  especially  in  which  he 
speaks  of  himself  as  "a  poor  old  man  already  for- 
gotten in  the  world,  though  you  know  I  have  done 
a  great  deal,  and  that  my  humble  performances  have 
been  borne  with  ;  now  they  are  despised " — and 
in  contrast  to  the  enthusiasm  and  gaiety  of  spirit 
which  characterises  all  we  know  of  his  earlier  life, 
he  was  at  least  still  able  to  work,  and  says  himself — 
"  Yet  God  gives  me  the  grace  to  be  able  to  continue 
to  do  something."  It  seems  certain,  too,  that  his 
allowance  was  continued  by  the  Portuguese  Govern- 
ment, which  would  have  kept  him  from  absolute 
penury.  A  tireless  worker  dwring  his  life,  it  was 
almost  with  the  graver  still  in  his  hand  that  he  died 
at  Lisbon,  after  a  short  and  painless  illness,  on 
March  7,  1 81 5. 

On  March  i  of  that  same  year  Napoleon  had 
quitted  Elba  and  marched  on  Paris.  All  Europe 
was  absorbed  in  that  brief  and  terrible  struggle, 
which  terminated  on    June   18   upon  the  field  of 


6o  BARTOLOZZI 

Waterloo,  and  few — even  among  those  to  whom 
fortune  had  come  through  his  industry — can  have 
given  much  thought  to  the  aged  artist,  whose  life 
had  just  flickered  out.  A  new  generation  had 
sprung  up,  during  the  great  war  which  was  now 
nearing  its  conclusion,  with  new  tastes,  new  aspira- 
tions, new  sympathies.  But  the  great  engraver 
who  thus  passed  away  had  possessed  artistic  qualities 
which  must  redeem  him  even  from  a  temporary 
oblivion.  Not  the  assumed  nobility  of  ancestry 
which  Portuguese  punctiliousness  discovered  to 
justify  his  knighthood,  nor  the  continuance  of  his 
name  among  descendants,  which  had  lapsed  now 
in  the  second  generation,  were  needed  to  keep  that 
name  immortal ;  for  this  he  had  himself  achieved 
by  the  abiding  value  and  interest  of  his  life-long 
work. 


CHAPTER  V 

BARTOLOZZrS   PUPILS   IN   ENGLAND 

THE  name  of  Henry  Bunbury  has  already 
come  before  us  in  the  preceding  chapters. 
More  refined  is  his  art  than  either  Row- 
landson  or  Gillray,  and  of  better  social  position  and 
culture — for  he  had  been  educated  at  Westminster 
and  Cambridge,  had  travelled  in  France  and  Italy, 
and  was  the  second  son  of  the  Rev.  Sir  William 
Bunbury,  who  had  inherited  a  Suffolk  baronetcy 
as  well  as  some  fortune— he  never  attained  the 
fertility  of  design  or  mastery  of  drawing  of  the 
two  caricaturists  just  mentioned. 

Something  of  the  amateur  remains  through  all 
the  work  of  Bunbury,  who  left  politics  practically 
out  of  his  field  of  subjects,  and  whose  social  qualities 
were  one  of  his  greatest  charms.  He  married 
Catherine  Horneck,  whose  sister  Alary  had    been 


62  BARTOLOZZI 

painted — and,  it  is  said,  proposed  to  —  by  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  who  had  elsewhere  painted  these 
two  pretty  women  together ;  and  when  he  settled 
in  the  country  with  his  young  wife,  his  circle  of 
friends  came  to  include  Oliver  Goldsmith,  the 
actor  Garrick,  Hoppner,  and  Sir  Joshua — the  latter 
being  godfather  to  his  second  son  Henry,  and 
painting  his  eldest  as  Master  Bunbury  in  1781  — 
and  last,  but  not  least,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 
Bunbury  was  equerry  to  the  Duke  of  York,  and 
an  officer  of  the  Suffolk  Militia,  and  as  such  was  in 
camp  at  Coxheath  in  1 778  during  the  period  of 
the  American  troubles.  Some  of  his  most  amusing 
caricatures  depict  the  military  life  of  the  period 
[Recruits  and  A  Visit  to  the  Camp)  ;  but  among  his 
better  known  prints  are  Coffee- House  Patriots  and  a 
Chop-House  (both  1781,  the  latter  with  Dr.  Johnson 
introduced),  and  (in  1787)  the  Long  Minuet  as 
danced  at  'Bath  and  The  Propagation  of  a  Lie, 

Bunbury  did  not  engrave  himself,  but  drew  in 
pencil,  or  black  and  red  chalk,  and  left  his  work  to 
be  reproduced  by  Bretherton  and  Dickinson — the 
latter's  engraving  of  The  County  Club  being  much 
sought  after  even  now  ;  while  Rowlandson  and 
Gillray  respectively  were  engaged  upon  his  Patience 


T.  Laurence,  pinxt  F.  Bartolozzi,  sculpt,  R.A. 

THE    RT.    HON.   THE    COUNTESS   OF   DERBY 

Formerly  Miss  Eliza  Favren,  a  beautiful  actress) 


BARTOLOZZrS  PUPILS  63 

in  a  Punt  and  A  Barber's  Shop  in  Assize  Time, 
A  Family  Piece  recalls  the  scene  in  his  friend 
Goldsmith's  famous  story  ;  while  another  rough 
sketch  seems  to  show  Lord  Derby,  probably  in  the 
early  stage  of  his  attachment,  following  the  coach 
of  that  beautiful  actress,  Miss  Farren  —  whose 
portrait  engraved  by  Bartolozzi  I  reproduce  in  this 
volume,  and  who  subsequently  became  the  Countess 
of  Derby. 

It  is  more  particularly  in  his  connection  with 
Bartolozzi  that  I  wish  to  speak  of  Bunbury  here  . 
for  he  supplied  the  engraver  with  some  charming 
drawings,  mostly  of  English  girls  in  simple  country 
dress — such  as  the  Sophia  and  Olivia^  drawn  for 
Goldsmith's  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  where  one  of 
the  girls  touches  a  guitar  and  the  other  holds  a  roll 
of  music  ;  or  again,  that  very  lovely  print,  a  copy  of 
which  is  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  collection, 
where  three  young  girls  dance  hand  in  hand  to  the 
strain  which  a  country  lad  seated  near  them  is 
piping.  The  grace  and  easy  movement  of  these 
figures  is  very  remarkable,  and  raises  our  opinion 
of  the  artist's  powers.* 

I  touch  the  subject  of  this  chapter  more   closely 
•  ** The  Song"  a  pendant  to  this,  is  no  less  charming. 


64  BARTOLOZZI 

when  I  come  to  the  name  of  Vitalba,  whom  we 
have  ah'cady  observed  (chap,  i.)  to  have  accompanied 
Bartolozzi  as  his  pupil  to  England.  Vitalba,  if  he 
did  not  travel  with  Bartolozzi,  followed  him  very 
closely,  being  in  London  in  1765  ;  he  was  then 
twenty-five,  having  been  born  in  1740,  and  had 
been  a  pupil  of  Joseph  Wagner,  at  Venice,  before 
he  associated  himself  with  Bartolozzi. 

Giovanni  Vitalba  is,  to  my  judgment,  a  mag- 
nificent engraver  in  line  ;  and  I  am  adding  to  my 
illustrations  an  old  man's  head  from  my  own 
collection,  which  fully  equals  in  delicacy  and  power 
anything  that  Bartolozzi  achieved  in  pure  line 
work.  The  Cupid  and  Satyrs  (after  Caracci) ; 
Spring  and  Summer  (from  Lauri) ;  and  Herodias 
with  the  head  of  John  Baptist  are  often  quoted  as 
his  more  important  prints  ;  but  I  could  supplement 
these  by  others  in  my  own  hands,  and  those  of 
friends,  notably  three  superb  line  engravings,  in 
my  father's  (Mr.  John  Brinton's)  collection — The 
Guardian  Angel  pointing  upzvards,  a  Bishop  attending 
a  Sick-bed  (from  Guercino,  inscribed  Giov,  Vitalba^ 
sculp.y  Londra\  and  A  Seated  Woman^  resting  her  chin 
upon  her  hand — while  in  my  own  hands  is  the 
S.  Joseph  ivith  the    Infant    Christ,     These  are  all 


BARTOLOZZrS  PUPILS  65 

line  engravings,  and  fully  justify  what  I  have  just 
said  as  to  Vitalba's  talent. 

Pupils,  it  mav  be  remarked  here,  formed  a  valuable 
assistance  to  the  engraver's  income,  and  Bartolozzi 
had  pupils  with  him  during  the  whole  of  his  resi- 
dence in  England  ;  but  it  was  really  the  fashion 
which  set  in  for  stipple  engravings  which  drew  the 
largest  number  of  artistic  aspirants  to  his  studio. 
Some  of  these  achieved  success,  which  placed  them 
very  nearly,  if  not  quite,  upon  their  master's  level  ; 
others  fell  back  into  the  ultimate  oblivion,  from  which 
no  teaching  or  example  could  rescue  mediocrity. 
In  any  case,  their  number  is  so  great  that  some,  who 
were  even  better  than  these  last,  must  be  omitted 
here  ;  while  the  prints  of  others,  whom  I  shall 
mention,  command  at  this  moment  as  high  prices  as 
those  of  Bartolozzi  himself.  But  there  are  two 
contemporaries  to  be  first  considered,  who  seem  to 
me  to  have  exercised  a  definite  influence  on  Barto- 
lozzi's  art. 

Thomas  Vivares  was  born  in  London  about  1735, 
as  one  of  a  family  of  thirty-one  !  He  had  already 
gained  recognition  by  his  talents  when  Bartolozzi 
reached  England,  and  between  1764  and  1788  was 
an  exhibitor  at  the   Royal  Academy  and   Society 


66  BARTOLOZZI 

of  Artists.  Bartolozzi  himself  exclaimed  of  him  : 
"  Vivares  !  He  is  the  finest  landscape  engraver  in 
the  world  ;  his  needle  paints  upon  the  copper — so 
light,  so  full  of  taste,  and  so  airy  !  His  skies  are  in 
motion.  I  esteemed  it  an  honour  to  engrave  the 
figures  in  his  landscapes."  He  referred  most  probably 
here  to  the  Italian  peasant's  vi^edding,  a  print  of 
which  now  lies  before  me.*  Numerous  figures  of 
peasants,  men  and  girls,  are  seated  at  a  table  spread 
in  an  open  glade.  The  bride  seems,  by  her  gesture, 
to  be  proposing  the  bridegroom's  health,  and  the 
distant  landscape,  with  a  large  Italian  villa  on  the 
right  and  a  classic  temple  in  the  middle  distance,  is 
very  finely  handled. 

But  Bartolozzi  did  not  treat  landscape  by  prefer- 
ence ;  and  I  incline  to  trace  a  deeper  influence  on  his 
style  in  the  engravings  of  Zocchi,  that  master  of 
characterisation  in  portraiture,  whose  merits  seem 
to  me,  even  now,  very  insufficiently  recognised. 
Born  in  Tuscany,  in  171 1,  Zocchi  was  at  his  prime 
just  when  young  Bartolozzi  was  first  gaining  his 
knowledge  of  the  graver's  art ;  and  the  plate  I 
have  already  mentioned  (chap,  i.)  defines  the  period 

*  Victoria  and  Albert  collection.  Inscribed  Barto- 
/ozzi  and  Fivares  fecit.     See  also  Tuer,  op.  cit.  chap.  i. 


BARTOLOZZrS  PUPILS  67 

of  his  Venetian  apprenticeship  as  coming  within 
Zocchi's  influence.  Some  landscapes  by  the  latter  in 
my  own  collection — apparently  of  the  country  lying 
between  Viterbo  and  Rome — are  very  remarkable, 
and  far  above  Basire's  sketchy  treatment  of  similar 
subjects  ;  but  his  greatest  strength  lay,  perhaps,  in 
his  portrait  studies,  and  in  two  prints  lying  before 
me  now — the  one  by  Zocchi,  the  other  by  Barto- 
lozzi — it  can  be  traced  how  the  younger  artist 
deliberately  imitated  the  strong  drawing  and  bold 
diagonal  shading  in  line,  which  characterise  those 
heads  of  monks  and  Italian  bourgeois  in  which  Zocchi 
delighted. 

I  turn  now  from  line  engraving,  in  which  Vitalba 
too  not  improbably  learned  something  from  the  last- 
named  master,  to  work  in  stipple  ;  and  here  the 
name  of  Thomas  Cheesman  comes  before  us,  as  one 
of  the  best  known  of  Bartolozzi's  pupils.  His 
portrait  of  the  beautiful  Marchioness  of  Townshend, 
with  her  little  son  as  a  naked  winged  Cupid,  holding 
a  dove,  of  which  I  possess  a  print  in  red  stipple, 
signed  Thomas  Cheesman^  late  pupil  to  F.  Bartolozzi 
Sculp.,  Angelica  Kauffman  pinx.,  is  a  masterpiece  of 
delicate  and  dainty  graver's  work.  Born  in  1760, 
and    working   both    in   stipple  and    mezzotint,  he 


68  BARTOL02ZI 

treated  subjects  from  Romney  and  Hogarth,  and 
was  exhibiting  as  late  as  the  year  1820— the  print 
just  mentioned  being  published  in  1792.  But 
Cheesman  belongs  to  the  later  period  of  Bartolozzi's 
English  life,  while  Delattre,  whose  name  has  come 
before  us  (chap,  iii.),  in  speaking  of  The  Death  of 
Chatham^  was  Bartolozzi's  principal  assistant  from 
the  year  1770  onwards. 

Jean  Marie  Delattre,  a  native  of  Abbeville,  in 
France  (born  1745),  coming  to  London  in  1770, 
gained  from  Bartolozzi  instruction  in  the  art  of 
stipple  engraving;  and  his  prints  in  this  method 
from  Angelica  KaufFman,  Cipriani,  Wheatley, 
Stothard,  and  Hamilton  achieved  great  success. 

It  is  obvious  that  at  this  time  (from  1770  onwards) 
a  great  deal  of  fine  stipple  engraving  was  being 
turned  out  from  Bartolozzi's  studio  by  his  pupils, 
working  under  the  famous  engraver's  direction  ;  and 
it  was  Delattre  who  was  employed  to  touch  up  and 
correct  the  work  of  younger  pupils,  whom  the 
master  was  unable  to  attend  to  himself.  In  the 
case  of  the  famous  Death  of  Chatham^  John 
Copley,  R.  A.,  the  artist  of  the  picture,  commissioned 
Delattre  to  make  a  smaller  engraving  of  the  same 
subject  for  600  guineas ;  and  on  the  painter's  sub- 


BARTOLOZZrS  PUPILS  69 

sequent  repudiation  of  this  contract,  on  the  ground 
that  the  engraving  was  inferior  in  style,  Delattre 
brought  an  action  for  the  amount,  and  won  his  suit 
in  1 80 1,  Bartolozzi  being  one  of  his  witnesses. 

One  of  the  most  fascinating  of  the  stipple  prints 
which  appeared  under  Bartolozzi's  name  is  The  Nest 
of  Loves ^  of  which  I  am  happily  able  to  give  a  good 
reproduction  from  a  print  in  my  own  possession. 
This  plate  was,  as  Mr.Tuer  pointsout,*  really  engraved 
by  one  of  Bartolozzi's  pupils,  Louis  Schiavonetti,  from 
a  drawing  by  Aspinall,  and  published  in  March  of 
1803  by  Gaetano  Bartolozzi.  The  name  on  the 
plate  was  changed  later  by  some  dishonest  dealer — 
into  whose  hands  it  had  then  come — to  that  of 
Bartolozzi,  thinking  thereby  to  enhance  its  value  ; 
the  same  having  been  done  elsewhere  with  John 
Ogborne's  stipple  portraits  of  two  beautiful  English 
actresses — Mrs.  Jordan  and  the  more  famous  Eleanor 
Gwynne.  But  both  Ogborne  and  Schiavonetti, 
though  pupils  of  Bartolozzi,  can  claim  a  high  place 
on  their  own  merits.  Ogborne,  born  in  London, 
1725,  worked  for  the  Boydells  and  engraved  from 
the  designs  of  Angelica  Kauffman  and  others  ;  while 
Schiavonetti,  a  younger  man  (born  1765),  came  from 
*  See  Tuer,  op.  cit.  chap.  xi. 


70  BARTOLOZZI 

Bassano  (the  birthplace,  too,  of  Jacopo  da  Ponte)  in 
the  Venetian  territory,  to  London  under  the  patron- 
age of  that  Testolini  who  gave  Bartolozzi  such 
trouble  over  the  print  of  the  Death  of  Chatham^  and 
w^ho  seems  actually  to  have  palmed  off  as  his  own 
some  of  Schiavonetti's  stipple  prints.  That  Schiavonetti 
possessed  real  talent  in  his  art  this  beautiful  print  of 
the  nymph  feeding  the  baby  Loves  amply  proves  : 
he  was  largely  employed  in  book  illustration,  and 
died  at  Brompton  in  1810. 

Far  more  closely  connected  with  Bartolozzi*s  life 
was  James  Anthony  Minasi  (born  1776),  a  native  of 
Calabria.  His  uncle  Antonio  had  interest  enough  to 
place  him  under  the  patronage  of  the  Court  at  Naples, 
and  in  1793  he  came  to  London  as  an  artist,  and 
lodged  with  his  cousin,  Mariano  Bovi,*  at  207 
Piccadilly.  His  uncle  had  used  his  influence  with 
the  King  of  Naples  and  Sir  William  Hamilton, 
ambassador  at  that  Court,  to  get  young  Minasi  into 
Bartolozzi's  studio,  and  eventually  he  was  received  as 
an  "  apprentice  to  Francis  Bartolozzi^  of  North  Endy  in 
the  parish  of  Fulham.  .  .  ,  Engraver^  to  learn  his  art 
for  the  term  of  seven  years. ^^  Though  the  full  period  was 

*  Bovi's  name  frequently  appears  as  publisher  beneath 
Bartolozzi  prints  ;  he  was  also  an  engraver. 


BARTOLOZZrS  PUPILS  71 

not  enforced  the  relations  between  master  and  pupil 
remained  those  of  mutual  respect  and  attachment  ; 
and  we  have  seen  (chap,  iv.)  that  their  correspondence 
was  continued  until  the  very  close  of  Bartolozzi's 
life.  By  his  engraving  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington^  at 
the  time  of  the  Peninsular  War,  Minasi  achieved 
a  financial  and  artistic  success.  He  was  devoted 
to  music,  being  the  intimate  friend  of  Paganini 
while  that  great  violinist  was  in  England,  and 
died  in  London  in  1865,  at  the  great  age  of 
eighty-nine. 

Peltro  William  Tomkins  (born  1760  in  London) 
must  by  no  means  be  forgotten  by  us  here.  As  a 
stipple  engraver  he  is  unequalled  in  tenderness  and 
finish  ;  and  Bartolozzi  himself  had  the  highest  opinion 
of  this  pupil's  talents,  and  loved  him  almost  as  a  father 
— "  he  is  my  son  in  the  art,"  he  had  once  said.  A 
typical  example  of  his  genius  is  a  print  I  have  now 
before  me  in  stipple,  printed  in  red,  its  title  being  The 
First  Lesson  in  Love*  with  beneath  it,  P.  H.  Tomkins^ 
sculp, ^  pupil  to  F.  Bartolozzi,  Two  young  girls, 
in  eighteenth-century  dress,  one  of  them  holding  a 

*  From  my  father's  collection.  Love  and  Hope^  and 
Marion  (from  Bunbury),  are  prints  much  sought  for. 
Tomkins  lived  till  1840. 


72  BARTOLOZZI 

spindle,  are  watching  two  doves  "  billing  and  cooing." 
Vine  leaves  cover  a  wall,  behind  which  a  youth 
watches  them  unobserved.  In  the  background  a 
brook  steals  beneath  shady  trees,  which  half  conceal 
a  cottage  ;  and  the  dainty  finish  of  the  drawing,  the 
tender  sentiment  of  the  whole  conception,  finds 
another  illustration  in  the  verses  beneath  : 

"  Ccelia,  behold  yon  pretty  dovesy 
How  sweet  they  bill  and  coo  : 
Were  I  and  Lub'in  wedded  loves 
Should  we  not  do  so  too  ? 

The  youth  unseen  overheard  the  matd^ 
Strange  raptures  fired  his  breast ; 
Tavow  his  fianie  no  more  afraid 
Nannette  he  soon  addressed. ^^ 

Just  this  air  of  prettiness  and  sentimental  charm 
are  the  distinguishing  notes  of  Tomkins'  engravings, 
which  are  often  very  exquisite  in  their  finish.  He 
had  a  high  reputation  in  his  life-time,  was  engraver 
(1793)  to  Queen  Charlotte,  and  in  the  present  day 
his  prints  fetch  good  prices. 

Like  Tomkins  J.  K.  Sherwin  excelled  in  subjects 
from  Kauffman  and  Cipriani  ;  and  there  are  others. 


BARTOLOZZrS  PUPILS  73 

one  of  whom  I  have  mentioned  here,  Minasi's 
cousin — whom,  in  a  fit  of  temper,  he  once  calls 
"//  porco  ^ovi^^ — Mariano  Bovi,  who  carried  on 
business  as  print-seller  and  engraver  at  207  Picca- 
dilly, and  who  was  proud  to  count  himself  among 
Bartolozzi's  pupils  ;  and  Pietro  Bettelini,  the  pupil 
who  felt  insulted  on  being  asked  by  the  master 
to  go  out  and  buy  some  cold  meat,  and  of  whom 
Bartolozzi  had  cause  to  remark  :  "  He  is  full  of 
self-esteem,  and  thinks  he  knows  far  more  than  he 
does." 

William  Nelson  Gardiner,  who  seems  to  have  tried 
most  careers  in  life — as  artist,  engraver,  musician, 
actor,  then  student  for  the  Church  at  Cambridge, 
and  finally  a  bookseller  in  Pall  Mall,  where  he 
committed  suicide  in  18 14 — must  be  added  to  our 
list.  James  Gillray  himself  had  been  an  actor  with 
a  strolling  company,  before  he  became  a  student  of 
the  Royal  Academy,  and  a  pupil  of  Bartolozzi  ; 
and  we  must  not  forget  the  elder  (R.  H.)  Cromek 
(born  1 771),  engraver  and  publisher,  who  worked 
largely  upon  Stothard's  designs,  and  R.  H.  Marcuard 
(1751-92),  whose  masterly  portrait  of  Bartolozzi, 
engraved  from  Sir  Joshua's  painting,  I  have  included 
among  my  illustrations  j  nor  yet  again  Middiman — 


74  BARTOLOZZI 

vsrho  handles  with  freedom  and  power  the  landscape 
in  The  Shepherdess  of  the  Alps  and  The  Tempest^  where 
Bartolozzi  engraved  the  figures,  nor  Meyer,  Pastorini, 
Pariset,  Ramberg,  the  two  Smiths  (Anker  and 
Benjamin),  and  the  two  Taylors  (Charles  and  Isaac). 
Volpato — who  scarcely  comes  under  the  heading  of 
this  chapter,  since  he  studied  with  Bartolozzi 
while  he  was  still  in  Venice — and  Vendramini,  who, 
like  Schiavonetti,  was  born  at  Bassano  (1769),  and 
who,  on  Bartolozzi's  departure  from  England  in 
1802,  succeeded  to  his  master's  house  at  North 
End,  Fulham,  must  conclude  our  list  here. 

Even  this  list,  though  sufficiently  large  for  this 
work,  cannot  pretend  to  completeness.  Sintzenich 
and  Summerfield  are  still  to  be  mentioned — the 
former  well  thought  of  on  the  Continent,  the  latter 
so  neglected  in  his  own  country,  in  spite  of  talent, 
that  he  practically  perished  of  want  ;  and  it  is  only 
the  exigencies  of  the  space  permitted  me  in  this 
series  which  force  me  reluctantly  away  from  a 
subject  in  which  there  is  so  much  to  say  —  so 
much  that  is  of  interest  to  the  collector,  the  artist, 
and  even  to  the  general  public.  For  the  collector 
or  lover  of  Bartolozzi's  work  will,  I  venture 
to   believe,  pardon    the  faults  of  this  little  work, 


BARTOLOZZrS  PUPILS  75 

because  he  will  trace  through  its  every  page  the 
influence  of  a  common  interest  and  enthusiasm  ; 
and  if  I  shall  have  stimulated  that  interest,  if  I 
should  have  added  to  that  knov^^ledge  or  enthusiasm, 
then  this  study  of  the  great  master  of  line  and 
stipple  will  not  have  been  in  vain. 


AN  ABRIDGED  LIST  OF  PRINTS 


|:-^-^:,;''>'v;'^7^!i'^i!Hif^^,pi^ 


-^^^1 

.5.^^  * 


' '  Syrinx  escaping  Pan  ' ' 

(Adapted  from  Bartolozzi's  Frontispiece) 

See  List  of  Prints,  No.  285 


AN  ABRIDGED  LIST  OF  PRINTS  EN- 
GRAVED  BY  FRANCESCO  BARTO- 
LOZZI,  R.A.,  BEFORE  AND  DURING 
HIS  RESIDENCE  IN  ENGLAND 


N.B. — This  list  represents  a  careful  selection  from  a 
total  of  over  two  thousand  prints,  and  even  so  my  space 
has  compelled  me,  to  my  regret,  to  confine  myself  to 
the  Master's  own  engravings.  Every  print,  save  six, 
contained  in  this  list  has  been  examined  by  me  personally, 
and  those  which  I  consider  of  exceptional  beauty  or 
interest  I  have  marked  with  one  or  two  asterisks. 

LINE  ENGRAVINGS  OR  ETCHINGS 

I  Dido's  Prayer.  After  Zocchi  {F.  Bartolozzi  Florentinus 
sculp.  Venetiis]. 

2-j ^*The  Months.  After  Zocchi.  Engraved  by  Barto- 
lozzi at  Venice,  and  pubHshed  there  by  Wagner.  (A 
complete  set  in  Print  Room  of  British  Museum.) 
See  chap,  i.,  and  note  especially  December  {-pig-kiWing), 
January  (skating),  April  (sheep-shearing),  and 
♦May  [described  in  chap,  i.,  p.  14). 


78  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

14  Nude    Child-angels    with    Censers    and    Church-hooks* 

Early     work     with     the     graver.     After     Domenico 
Zampieri. 

15  Children  Riding  a  Goat.     After  Franceschini. 
15a  Group  of  Baby  Bacchanals.     After  Franceschini. 
i6*Sleeping  Baby  Boy.     After  Elizabetta  Sirani. 
i7**La  Vierge  au  Silence.     After  Annibale  Caracci. 
i^**Clytie.      After    Annibale    Caracci,    Published    by    J. 

Boydell,  Nov.  26,  1772. 
ig*Cupid  and  Psyche  with  a  Dart.     After  Guercino. 
20  Prometheus  and  the  Vulture.     After  Michelangelo. 
2i*Virgin  and  Child  with  S.  Elizabeth.     After  Guercino. 

There  are  about  150  prints  from  the  original  drawings 
of  Guercino,  mostly  from  the  collection  of  H.M. 
George  III,  All  are  of  interest,  but  among  the 
best  of  these  are  : 

22  Flora  with  Attendant  Boys. 

23  Infant  S.  John  with  a  Cross.     {See  illustration.) 

24  The  Same    (older  lad)  in  the  Wildernes^y. 

2  5**OW  Man,  Woman,  and  Boy  with  the  Model  of  Building 

(chap,  ii.,  p.  21). 
26** An  Italian  Family  Concert.     {See  illustration.) 
2y*Quee}i  Esther  and  her  Maids  before  Ahasuerus. 

28  Virgin  and  Child  watching  a  Bird. 

29  The  Circumcision. 

lo"** Almighty  in  Clouds,  with  two  cherubs  (chap.  ii..  p.  20). 
^j**Naked   Woman  Lying  down  with  her  Babe  (chap,   ii., 

p.  21). 
32  S.  John  Writing. 

^l*Cupid  seeing  his  Bow  in  the  Flames  (chap,  ii.,  p.  21  J. 
34  Salvator  Mundi  (Youthful  Christj  with  Globe. 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  79 

35  Two  Italian  Girls  (?  Guercino's  daughtersjj 
36*55.  Peter  and  Paul. 

27*Holy  Family  with  Angel  Playing  a    Violin.   {See  illus- 
tration.) 
l^* Gamblers  or  Italian  "  Bravi  "  Quarrelling. 
ig^Four  Women,  with  Naked  Child  learning  to  Walk, 
40  Girl  Seated  in  Thoughtful  Attitude. 
4i**Sibyl  (Sibilla  Libia)  with  a  Book. 
42  Naked  Boys  Pressing  Grapes. 
4^*Three  Boys  with  a  Wreath  (pendant  to  No,  42]. 
44  Four  Boys  with  a  Vase  and  Captive  Bird. 
4$*Five    Boys    Playing  —  One     has    a    Fife,    Another    a 
Drum. 

46  Baby  Boy  Drinking  from  Wine-flaski 

Note  here  also  : 

47  By    R.    Dalton.     An    Italian    Music    Lesson.     After 

Guercino.     [See  illustration.) 

48  ByVitalba.     *Headof  Old  Man.    After  Guercino.     {See 

illustration.) 


Line  Work  from  Other  Italian  Artists 

4g*Atalanta    and    Hippomanes.     After    Benvenuto    Luti. 
Published  1791. 

50  Boys  Playing  with  Lamb.     After  Simone  da  Pesaro, 

who  died  1648. 

51  Mother     and     Sleeping     Child.     After      Sassoferrato. 

Published  by  Boydell  1767. 
S2*Tobias  and  the  Angel.     After  Carlo  Maratta. 

53  Laocoon  and  his  Sons.     After  Pietro  da  Cortona. 

54  Laban  Seeking  for  his  Idols.     After  the  same. 


8o  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

SS* Allegory  of  Night.  (One  of  Bartolozzi's  earliest  works 
in  England.  Imprint  runs  :  F.  Bariolozzi  sculpt., 
Londra,  1764.)     After  Annibale  Caracci. 

56  Allegorical  Subject.     After  Michelangelo. 

57  Figure  from  Last  Judgment.     After  the  same. 
i,^**Cupid's   Manufactory   (from    a    series    of   The    Four 

Elements,  by  Francesco  Albano,  in  the  Royal 
Gallery  of  Turin  ;  this  one  representing  Fire). 
Published  by  J.  Boydell,  1800.  {See  illustration.) 
$g*Sleeping  Venus.  After  Annibale  Caracci.  A  beautiful 
reclining  nude.  (F.  Bart^  sculpt.,  J.  Boydell 
excudit,  1783.) 

60  A  Series  of  Drawings  after  Hans  Holbein  ;  the  originals 

in  his  Majesty's  collection  being  portraits  of  the 
Court  of  Henry  VIII.     Published  in  1792. 

61  The  Marlborough   Gems.     Drawn  by  G.   B.   CiprianL 

Engraved  by  F.  Bartolozzi  {see  chap.  iii.J. 


PORTRAITS  BOTH  IN  LINE  AND  STIPPLE 

Many  of  these  last  also  in  colour 
Male  Portraits 

62  Thomas  Lord  Graves.     After  Northcote. 

63  Thomas    Guy    (Founder    of    Guy's    Hospital).      After 

J.  Bacon,  R.A. 

64  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson.  LL.D.     Published  1785. 

6s* Marten    van    Suchen    (in     steel     armour).      After    A^ 

Schouman. 
66   Vincent  Lunar di   {"  First   aerial   traveller  in   English 

atmosphere  "].     After  R.  Cosway. 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  8i 

6y*0mai.  Native  of  Ulaietea  (brought  to  England  in 
1774).     After  N.  Dance. 

68  Quirino, Senator  of   Venice  (imprint   "  ne  omnis  moriar 

Bartolozzi  me  sculpsit  1794"). 

69  Right  Hon.  William  Pitt,  First  Lord  Commissioner,  &c. 

Published  1789.     After  J.  S.  Copley. 

70  Alex.  Wedderburn  (Lord  Loughborough). 

71  Andrew  Keppis,  D.D.,  F.R.S.     After  W.  Acland. 
72* Sir  Ralph  Abercromhie.     After  Hoppner. 

7 Z** John  Ash,  M.D.  {full-length.  Published  1791).  After 
Sir  J.  Reynolds. 

74  Johann  Christian  Bach   {medallion   with   figures,  1782). 

After  A.  Carlini. 

75  Cardinal  Pietro  Bembo   {A.   Paselli    Ven,   del).     After 

Titian. 

76  Lieut.-Col.   Cox   {uniform  of  Bloomsbury  and  Inns   of 

Court  Association  in  1794).     After  G.  Hounsom. 

77  Captain  Cook  {published  by   Webber  at  Cape  of    Good 

Hope  and  London,  1784). 

78  The  Poet  Cowper  {drawn  in   1793  from  life  by  Sir   T. 

Lawrence). 

79  Napoleon    Buonaparte    (F.    Bartolozzi,     R.A.,     del.     et 

scidpt.). 

80  Lord  Wellington.   {Engraved  in  18 10,  by  Bartolozzi,  when 

the  latter  was  eighty-three  years  old.) 

%i*Lord  Clive.  {Painted  by  N.  Dance.  Engraved  by  F. 
Bartolozzi. ) 

82  The  Affectionate  Brothers.  {Sir  J.  Reynolds  pinx. 
F.  Bartolozzi  sculpt.). 

S^**  George  Augustin  Eliot — Lord  Heath  field.  Governor  of 
Gibraltar*  {Painted  by  Poggi.  Engraved  by  Barto- 
lozzi.^ 

P 


82  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

84  Sir   J.    F.    E.    Acton,    Bart.     {Proof   before   letters,  in 

Baron  de  Worms'  collection.) 

85  H.R.H.    the    Prince    of    Wales.         Dedicated    to    the 

Kentish     Bowmen.     {J.     Russell,    R.A.,    pinx.     F. 
Bartolozzi,  R.A.,  sculpt.] 
86*Francis    Bartolozzi,    Esq.,    R.A.      {W.    Acland    pinx. 
Pastorini  and  P.  W.  Tomkins  sculpt.} 

87  Magliahecchi  {the  famous  Librarian  of  Florence}. 

88  Charles  Pratt — Earl  Camden.     After  Gainsborough. 
Sg**John    Dunning — Lord    Ashburfon    {published    1790J. 

After  Sir  J.  Reynolds. 
go**William  Murray — Earl  of  Mansfield  {published  1786). 

After  Sir  J.  Reynolds. 
gi**Edward,    Lord    Thurlow    {part    line,    cross    hatched, 

part  stipple).     After  Sir  J.  Reynolds, 
g2*Hon.    Leicester    Stanhope    {child    with    drum\.     After 

Sir  J.  Reynolds. 
gi* Frederick  II.  of  Prussia.     After  Ramberg's  painting. 
g4**  Right     Hon.      William     Pitt.     After     Gainsborough 

Dupont. 
g4aThe  Same  Statesman.  After  Thomas  Gainsborough,  R. A.- 

95  The  Earl  of  Bute.     After  Romney. 

96  W.  Cobbett  {published  1801).     After  J.  R.  Smith. 

gy* Master  Philip   Yorke    {with  bird  and    dog.     Published 
March  1788J.     After  Sir  J.  Reynolds. 

98  George,   Duke  of  Marlborough,   his  Duchess  and  child. 

After  Samuel  Shelley. 

99  John,  Lord  Burghersh  (as   child    running),    afterwards 

Earl  of  Westmoreland.    After  Sir  J.  Reynolds,  P. R.A. 

100  Francesco  Bartolozzi,  R.A.     Engraved  by  his  pupil, 

Marcuard.     After   Sir   J.    Reynolds,     P.R.A.     {See 
illustration.) 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  83 

lOi   G.    F.    Barbieri    (called    Guercino    da    Cento).     After 

Guercino. 
lo,-?  Pietro  Berettini  da  Cortona  {medallion).     After  Carlo 

Maratta. 

103  Carlo  Cignani.     After  Carlo  Maratta^ 

Female  Portraits 

104  Georgiana,  Duchess  of  Devonshire.     After  Lady  Diana 

Beauclerc. 
10^* Elizabeth,  Duchess  of  Devonshire  {Lady  Betty  Foster). 

After  Sir  J.  Reynolds. 
io6*Georgiana,     Duchess     of     Devonshire     (1783).     After 

Jas.  Nixon. 
ioy**The    Same.     After    a    drawing    by    Mr.    Downman. 

{See  illustration.) 

108  Mrs.  Crouch  {seated  by  the  sea,    three-quarter    length). 

After  G.  Romney. 

109  Lady  Jane  Dundas.     After  Hoppner. 
iio*Duchess  of  Rutland  {oval,  very  charming).    Published 

July  15.  1780. 

111  Mrs.  Arabella  Lennox  {published  1792).     After  Sir  J. 

Reynolds. 

112  Jane  Shore  {published  by  Harding,  1790,  for  Harding's 

"  Shakespeare  "). 

113  Van  Dyck's  Wife  and  Child  (published  1770).     After 

Van  Dyck. 
11^** Daughters  of   Lady  Diana   Beauclerc  *    {a   charming 
creation.      Published    1780).       After    Lady    Diana 
Beauclerc.     Imprint :   Etched  by  F.  Bartolozzi. 

*  Lady  Diana  was  the  daughter  of  Charles  Spencer,  2nd  Duke 
of  Marlborough.     A  clever  amateur  artist— i^.  1734  ;  d.  1808. 


84  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

lis* Catharine   ^^-    ^i   Russia    {published    1788,  after    Mi 

Benedetti  :  drawn  in  1783). 
116  Maria  of  Austria. 
iiy*Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.     After  Zucchero  (See  chap.  ii.Jj 

1 1 8  Duchess  of  Northumberland.     After  G.  B.  Cipriani. 

119  Right    Hon.     Anne,     Countess     Cowper.     After     W. 

Hamilton,  R.A. 
i20**Miss  Elizabeth  Farren,  Countess  of  Derby  (full-length. 
Published  by  Jeff  ryes,  London,  1791.     Commenced  by 
G.  C.  Knight,  finished  by  Bartolozzi).  {See  illustration.) 

121  Lady  Diana  Beaucterc  and  Sister.     After  Lady  Diana 

Beauclerc. 

122  Cipriani's  Daughter,  and  Lais  {Cipriani)^ 
122,  Miss  O'Neill.     After  R.  Cosway,  R.A. 
12^* Maria  Cosway.     After  R.  Cosway,  R.A.- 

125  Countess  of  Bute.     After  Romney. 

126  Miss  Ponsonby.     After  R.  Cosway,  R.A. 
i2y**Lady  Smith  and  Children.     After  Sir  J.   Rejmolds, 

P.R.A.     Also  in  colour. 
12?>* Angelica  Kauffman,  R.A.   (1780,    red  stipple).     After 

Sir  J.  Reynolds,  P.R.A. 
129  Lady  Elizabeth  Foster.    After  Sir  J.  Reynolds,  P.R.A. 
20**CoHntess  of  Harrington  and  Children.     After  Sir  J. 

Reynolds,  P.R.A. 
l$i*Countess     of    Bessborough     {published     1787).     After 

Lavinia,  Countess  Spencer. 
\7,2*Lavinia,  Countess  Spencer.   After  Sir  J.  Reynolds, 

P.R.A. 

133  Another  portrait  of  above.     After  J.  R.  Smith. 

134  Lady  Ashburton.     After  Sir  J.  Reynolds,  P.R.A. 
I35*ill^s.  Siddons  {published   1785).     After  Horace  Hone, 

A.R.A. 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  85 

l$6**The  Hon.  Anne  Bingham.     After  Sir  J.   Reynolds, 

P.R.A.     Also  in  colour. 
137  H.R.H.    Princess    Amelia,    Daughter    of    George    III. 

After  Sir  Thos.  Lawrence. 

Fancy  Portraits 

11^* John    Philip    Kemble,    as    Richard    III.     After    W. 

Hamilton,  R.A. 
139  A   Lady  in  a  Grecian  Dress  {Mrs.  Baldwyn).     After 

R.  Cosway,  R.A. 
i^o**Thais  {portrait  of  Emily  Pott,  or  Coventry],     After 

Sir  J.  Reynolds,  P.R.A.     {See  illustration.) 
i4i*Winter  {portrait  of  Mrs.   Wheatley,  nee  Miss  Leigh). 

After  Francis  Wheatley,  R.A. 

142  Summer  {portrait  of  Mrs.  Toward,  Wheatley' s  sister-in- 

law).     After  Francis  Wheatley,  R.A. 

143  Guardian  Angels,  or  Silence  {Mme.  Vestris,  Bartolozzi' 

grand-datighier,   a  baby-girl  asleep).     By  F.  Barto- 
lozzi, R.A.     Engraved  by  Clarke. 
i/^*Hebe    {Emma    Hart,    later    Lady    Hamilton).     After 
G.   Cipriani,    R.A.,    to   whom  she  sat,    as   well  as 
to  Romney  and  others.     A  charming  creation. 

145  Lesbia   {Miss    Theophila  Palmer,  as   a   child).     After 

Sir  J.  Reynolds,  P.R.A. 

146  Thalia   {Mrs.  Abingdon  crowning  Shakespeare's   bust. 

Published  1783).     After  R.  Cosway,  R.A. 
I ^y* Simplicity     {Miss     Theophila     Gwatkin,     daughter    of 

Sir  Joshua's  niece.  Miss  Theophila  Palmer,  by  her 

marriage  with  R.  Gwatkin).      After  Sir  J.  Reynolds, 

P.R.A. 
148  Mr.    Henderson    as    "  lago  "    {Stuart   del.,  Bartolozzi 

sculpt.     Published  by  Balawyn). 


86  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

f49  The  Resurrection  of  a  Pious  Family.  After  William 
Peters.  {The  male  figure  ascending  from  below  is 
said  to  be  the  artist's  portrait.] 


SUBJECTS    DRAWN    FROM    MYTHOLOGY    AND 
ROMANCE 

{Many  in  stipple  and  colour.     The  inscriptions  here 
are  taken  from  the  actual  prints.) 

i50*JuDGMENT  OF  Paris.     {G.  B.  Cipriani  inv.     F.  Bart. 

sculp.     J.  Boy  dell  exc,  1783.) 
i5i*Venus     and     Adonis.     {Cosway     pinx'.     F.     Bart. 

sculp.     Published  by  J.  Walker,  1778.) 
152  The    Angelic    Child.     {Robinson    pinx,     F.    Bart., 

R.A.,  sculp.     Published  by  W.  Palmer,  1790.) 
i53*Parting  of  Achilles  and  Briseis.     (G.  B.  Cipriani 

inv.  et  del.,   1785.     F.  Bart',  sculp.     Published   by 

Vivares,  1786.) 
154  The  Latter's    Return    to    her  Parent.     {By  the 

same  artists.) 
I55*Hercules    and    Omphale.     {G.    B.    Cipriani    inv 4 

F.  Barf,  sculp.) 
i56*Innocence  taking  Refuge  in  the  Arms  of  Justice. 

{Louisa  E.  Lebrun  inv.  et  pinxit,   1779.      F.  Bart', 

sculp.,  1783.     Published  in  Paris  and  London.) 
157  Charity.     (/.    B.    Cipriani,    R.A.,    inv.     F.    Bart., 

R.A.,  sculp.) 
i58*Eurydice.     {Ang*^.  Kauffman  pinx.     F.  Barf,  sculp. 

Published  in  1790.) 
I59*Cordelia.     {Ang'.  Kauffman  pinx.     F.  Bart*,  sculp. 

Published  by  J.  Burchall,  1784.J 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  S7 

160  Friendship     (nude     child).     {G.     B.     Cipriani    del. 

F.  Bart'.,  R.A..  sculp.) 

161  Cephalus    and    Procris.     (G.   B.   Cipriani  del.     F. 

Bart\,  R.A.,  sculp.] 

162  Griselda.     {Ang.  Kauffman  pinx.     F.  Bart'.,  sculp. 

Published  1784  by  Vivares.) 

163  Zephyrus  and  **Flora  {two  roundels).     {Colibert  inv. 

F.  Barf,  sculp.     Published  by  W.  Palmer.  1788.) 

164  Cupid  Mends  his  Bow.    {A.  Allegri  pinx.  [it  is  really 

by  Parmigianino].     F.  Barf,  sculp.     Published  by 
Ai  Torre,  1785.) 

165  Cupidon    achette    (sic.)    trop    CHER.     {Jos.    Turts 

pinx.     F.  Barf,  sculp.     Published,  1786.) 
1 66** Venus    Chiding    Cupid.     {Sir    J.    Reynolds    pinx. 
F.   Bart,  fecit.     Published  by  A.  Torre,  1784. j     In 
black  ;  also  in  red  stipple. 

167  Jupiter  and  Io.     {From  Allegri' s   painting.     In  red 

stipple.) 

168  Reading  Magdalen.     {From  painting   attributed  to 

Allegri.     F.  Bart.,  R.A.,  sculp.) 
i69*Hebe    Feeds    the    Eagle.     {A.    Kaufman    pinx. 

F.  Bart,  sculp.     Published  by  J.  Walker,  1782.) 
I70*Nymphs   Bathing.     {G.   B.   Cipriani  inv.     F.   Bart. 

sculp.     From  Cipriani's  "  Rudiments  of  Drawing." 

Published    by    F.    Barf'.,     1787.      Republished    by 

Gaetano  Barf.,  1792.) 
\yi*Same  subject;    colour  print  in  line,  in  my  possession. 

{G.  B.  Cipriani  del.     F.  Bart,  sculp.) 

172  Also  *colour  stipple  {Baron  de  Worms'  collection)^  and 

an  oval,  red  stipple  {British  Museum  collection.) 

173  Nymphs    after    Bathing.     {Colour    print,     in    my 

possession.     By  Cipriani  and  Bartolozzi.j 


88  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

174  Nude    Children    Quarrelling    and    Mourning* 

{Two  plaUs.     G.  B.  Cipriani  inv.     F.  Bart,  sculp., 

and  published  1787.) 
i75**Telemachus  and  Mentor.     {Ang.  Kauffman  pinx. 

F.  Bart,  sculp.     Ryland  published.     1786.) 
I76**The    Country    Girl     going     a     Reaping.     (F. 

Wheatley,  R.A.,  del.       F.  Bart.,  Esq.,  R.A.,  sculpt.} 

Probably   from    Mrs.    Wheatley.     Cf.    his    Winter. 

Published  by  A.  Molteno,  1787.) 
177  Romeo  and  Juliet  at  the  Masque.     {W.  Hamilton 

pinx.    F.  Bart,  sculp.    J.  Burchell  published.    1783.) 
I78*The    Sleeping    Nymph.     (G.    B.    Cipriani   inv.     F. 

Bartolozzi  sculpt.). 
179  Tancred    and    Clorinda.     {Ang.    Kauffman    pinx. 

F.  BartK  sculpt.  1783.) 
i8o*Tke  Deserted  Village.     (F.  Wheatley,  R.A.,  pinx, 

F.  BartK  sculp.     From  Macklin's  "  British  Poets," 

which  contained  a  fine  series  of  stipple  prints.) 
i8i*The  Death  of  Chatham.     (/.  5.  Copley  del.     En- 

graved  by  F.  Bart.,  R.A.     See  chap,  iii.,  p.  41). 
i82*PsYCHE  Going  to  Bathe.     (G.   B.   Cipriani,   R.A., 

pinx.     F.  Bart.,  R.A.,  sculp.) 
i83*PsYCHE   GpiNG  TO   Dress.     (G.   B.   Cipriani,   R.A., 

del.,    F.    Bart.,    R.A.,    sculp.     Published    1786    hy 

E.  M.  Diemar.) 

184  Venus  Combing    Her    Hair.     {Drawn  by  F.  BarV. 

Engraved  by  J.  A.  Minasi,  late  pupil  of  F.  BarV, 
Published  by  M.  Bori,  1798.) 

185  Vigilance.     (G.    B.    Cipriani   inv.     F.    Bart,    sculp. 

Published  in  1782  by  Vivares.) 

186  Music.     (G.  B.  Ciprani  inv.     F.  Bart,  sculp.     Pub' 

fished  in  1793  by  A.  Molteno.) 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  89 

i87*GiRL  AND  Kitten.  {Sir  J.  Reynolds  pinx.  F.  Bart., 
R.A.,  sculp.  Published  in  17^7  by  W.  Dickin- 
son.) 

188  History,  Painting,  Music  {three  ovals).  {G.  B. 
Cipriani  inv.  F.  BarV.  sculp.,  ij2>2.  Published 
by  J.  Woodhotise.) 

i89*Serenity.  (G.  B.  Cipriani  inv.  F.  Bart,  sculp. 
Published  1782  by  {Mrs.)  Susanna  Vivares.) 

190  Prosperity,  aw^  (191)  Contentment  {nude  children). 
By  the  Same. 

192  Fortune   Running   with  Children  around   Her. 

{Drawn  by  Cipriani.     Engraved  by  Bart'.     Published 
1 801  by  Bori.) 

193  Amorini  or  Baby  Loves.     {Lady  Di.  Beauclerc  del. 

F.  Bart'.,  R.A.,  sculp.) 
i94*HoPE.     {F.  Bart'.,  R.A.,  inv.  del.  et  sculp.)     One  of 

four  oval  medallions,  Hope,  Merit,  *Prudence,  and 

Vanity  {published  by  Molteno,  1794.) 
195  Summer.     {F.  Bart.,  R.A.,  del  et  sculp.     Published  by 

A.  Molteno,  1799.) 
I96*Winter.     {Drawn,    engraved,    and    published   by    the 

same.) 
197  Cupid  and  Psyche.     {Lavinia  Countess  Spencer  del. 

F.  Bart\,  R.A.,  sculp.,  1792.) 
i98*CupiD  AND  Psyche.   {Here  Psyche,  nude,  stands  upright 

before  winged  Love.)     Published  178 1. 
i99*CupiD  AND  Psyche  {as  children).     {Drawn  by  Bart\ 

Engraved  by  Delattre.) 
200  Venus  Attired  by  the  Graces.     (G.  B.  Cipriani  del. 

F.  Bart,  sculp.     J.  Boy  dell  exc,  1783.) 
20i*The    Triumph    of    Beauty.     (G.    B.    Cipriani    del 

F.  Bartoloezi,  R.A.,  sculp.] 


90  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

202*The  Sacrific*b  to  Cupid.  (/.  B.  Cipriani  del. 
F.  Bart\,  R.A.,  sculp.  Published  1783  by  W. 
Palmer. ) 

203  Bacchus  and  Ariadne.  {B.  Cipriani  del.  En- 
graved by  F.  Barf.  Published  by  Duchesne, 
1787.) 

204*JupiTER  AND  JuNO.  (G.  B.  Cipriani  del.  F.  Bart, 
scidp.     Published  by  A.  Torre,  1782.) 

205* Juno  Keceiving  the  Cestus  from  Venus.  (G.  B. 
Cipriani  del.  F.  Ban^.  sculp.  Published  by 
A.  Torre,  1784.J 

206  The  Nursing  of  Bacchus  {Ang.  Kauffman  del. 
F,  Bartolozzi,  R.A.,  sculp.) 

207*Nymphs  Sporting.  {Aug.  Kaufman  del.  F.  Barto- 
lozzi, R.A.,  scidp.)     Pendant  to  last. 

208  Neptune  and  Amphitrite  {frieze}.      (G.  B.  Cipriani 

inv.     F.  Barf,  scidp.     1777.) 

209  A  Sacrifice  to  Jupiter  {frieze).     {Same  artists  ;  same 

date.) 

210  Vulcan    and    Venus,   with    the     Graces    {frieze), 

{Same  artists  and  date.) 

211  Minerva  Visiting  the  Muses  {frieze).     {Same  artists 

and  date.) 
2I2*Tritons   and   Sea   Nymphs.     {A    very  spirited  little 
frieze  by  same.     No  date.) 

213  Baby    Bacchanals.     {Lady  Di.    Beauclerc    del.,   F. 

BarV'.,  R.A.,  sculpt.     Published  1791.) 

214  The  Children  are  too  numerous  to  catalogue  :    they  are 

playing,   scuffling,   naked,   and  in  dress   of  period. 
Cf,  Sculpture  and  Painting  {F.  Bart,  del)  also. 

215  Cherubim.     {Drawn     and     engraved    by     F.     Bart*. 

Published  by  Mariano  Bori,  1792.) 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  91 

«i6*H0PE.     {G.  B.  Cipriani  del.     F.  Bart\,  R.A.,  sculp. 
Published  by  J.  Walker,  1784.) 

217  Sophia  and  Olivia.     (H.  W.  Bunhury  del.     F.  Bart'. 

sculp.     Published  by  J.  Matthews,  1784.) 

218  Little    Girl    Asleep.      {F.    Bart.    del.    et    sculpt. 

Published  ijgS  by  Dickinson.) 
2i9*EuPHROSYNE.     (G.   Amicoui  pinx.     F.   Bart',   sculp. 

Published  1784  by  J.  Burchall.) 
220*The  Birth  of  Shakespeare.     {Ang.  Katiffman  pinx. 

F.  Bart,  sculp.,  1782.     Published  by  A.  Poggi.) 
22i*Shakespeare's   Tomb.     {Ang.    Kauffman   pinx.     F. 

Bart,  sculp.     Published  by  A.  Poggi,  1782.) 
722  The  Fair  Ariadne,     {F.  Bart'.,  R.A.,  del.  et  sculpt.] 
223  The  Death  of  the  Stag  {Diana  and  her  nymphs]. 

{Gabbianiinv.   F.Bariolozzi  sculp.)  Published  ijg^. 
224*"  Orange    Girl."     (/.    H.    Beniuell   del.     F.   Bart\ 

sculp.     Published  17Z7  by  J.  Walker.) 
225  "  A    St.    James    Beauty."     (/.    H.    Benwell   pinx. 

F.  Bart,  sculp.     Same  date,  by  E.  Diemar.) 
2 26* A  St.   Giles  Beauty."     (/.  H.   Benwell  pinx.     F. 

Bart,  sculp.     Same  date,  by  E.  Diemar.) 
227  Britannia    Rewarding    Music    and    Literature. 

(IF.  Hamilton,  R.A.,  pinx.     F.  Bart.,  R.A.,  etched.] 
228*The  Nymph  of  Immortality  Crowning  the  Bust 

of  Shakespeare.     (G.  B.  Cipriani  pinx.     F.  Bart. 

sculp.     Published  in  1784  by  J.  Burchall.) 
229-233  The    Seasons.     {*"  Spring"    and    "Autumn" 

drawn  by  R.  Westal,  etigraved  by  Bart'.      Published 

by  J.  Simpson,  1791.     "  Summer  "  and  "  Winter  "  ; 

see  Fancy  Portraits  above.) 
a34*RELiGiON.     {Ang.   Kauffman    pinx.     F.   Bari.  sculp. 

Published  1783  by  A.  Torre.] 


92  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

235  Poetry.     {Ang.     Kaiiffman    inv.     F.     Bart,    sculpt 

Published  1781  by  S.  Biickland.) 
236**The    Power    of    Beauty.     (G.    B.    Cipriani    inv, 

F.  Bart,  sculp.     Published  1783  by  W.  Palmer.) 

237  The  Fair  Alsatian.   {Ang.  Kauffmanpinx.    F.Bart. 

sculp.     Published  1779  by  F.  Bartolozzi.] 

238  Girls  (of  Otaheite  ?)  Dancing  :    Natives  Stand 

Round.     {No  imprint.) 

239  The    Tarantella    Dance.     {W.    Lock    inv.    et    del. 

F.   Bart',  sculp.     Published   1799  by  F.   Bartolozzi 
and  Company.) 

240  A  Turkish  Beauty.     {G.  B.  Cipriani  del.     F.  BarU 

sculp.     Published  1775.     Red  and  black  stipple.) 

241  Comedy    {two  renderings).     {G.  B.  Cipriani  del.     F4 

Bart,    sculp.,    1784,      oval).      *One  full-length,  with 
children  dancing,  1788.     Published  by  Molteno. 

242  Tragedy.     {By  the  same.) 

243  Geography.     {Cipriani  inv.     F.  Bart,  sculp.     Pub- 

lished 1789  by  J.  and  J.  Boy  dell.) 
244*Composition  and  Design  {two  ovals).     {Ang.  Kauff- 

man    pinx.     F,    Bart,    sculp.     Published    1787    by 

Boy  dell.) 
245*Blind  Man's  Buff,     {Ang.   Kaufman  del.     Etched 

by  F.  Bart^.     Published  1784  by  S.  Walker.) 
246  Origin  of  Design.     {Bartolozzi  fecit.) 
247**Beauty.     (G.    B.    Cipriani    del.     F.    Bart,    sculp. 

Published  1783.     See  illustration.) 
248  A    Naiad.     (G.    B.    Cipriani    inv.     F.    Bart,    sculp. 

Published  1779  by  F.  Bartolozzi.) 
249**Horace.     {Ang.   Kaufman,   R.A.,   pinx.     F.   Bart. 

R.A.,    sculpt.     Published    1792    by    T.  Ryder.     Set 

illustration.) 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  93 

'250*Adelaide  in  the  Garden.     {After  H.  W.  Btinbiiryi 

In  colony.) 
251  Charlottb    and    Her    Sisters.      {After    the    sanies 

Published  1783  by  W.  Dickinson.) 
2  52*The    Song    {four    young    girls).      {After    the    same^ 

Published  1782  by  W.  Dickinson.) 
252a**THE  Dance  {three  girls  dancing).     {After  the  same. 

H.  Bunbury  del.    F.  Bart.  engr.    See  chap,  v.,  p.  64.) 
253*Amoret    and    Britomart.     {After    T^    Opie,    R.A, 

F.  Bart\  sculp.) 

254  Celadon  and   Amelia.     {After   W.  Hamilton,  R.A., 

Engraved  by  F.  Bartolozzi,  R.A.     1794.) 

255  Adelaide,    or    The     Shepherdess    of    the    Alps. 

{B.  Cipriayii  inv.     F.  Bart,  sculp.     1784.) 
256*Selim,  or  The  Shepherd's    Moral.     {Ang.  Kauff- 

man,  R.A.,  pinx.     F.  Bart.,  R.A.,  sculp.     Also  in 

colour.) 
257*The    Shepherd    of    the    Alps.     {Ang.    Kauffman 

painted.     Engraved  by  F.  Barf.) 

258  Louisa  Hammond.     {Ang.   Kauffman  del.     F.   Bart. 

sculp.     Colour  :  for  Pratt's  "  Emma  Corbett.") 

259  The    Liberal    Fair.     {Ang.    Kauffman    pinx.     F. 

Bart,  sculp.) 

260  Ceres.     {Ang.  Kauffman  del.     F.Bart,  sculp.     1782,) 

261  Dido.     (G.  Cipriani  inv.  et  pinx.     F.  Bart,  engraved. 

1788.) 

262  Painting.     263    Design.     264   Architecture.    265 

Invention.      Four   ovals    in    Baron    de    Worms' 
collection.     {A.    Kauffman   pinx.     F.   Bart,    sculp. 
Published  by  J.  and  J.  Boy  dell,  17S7.) 
266  Orlando      Rescuing      Olympia.      {Ann.      Caracci 
pinx.     F.  Barf,  sculp.     Published  by  Boydell,  1788.) 


94  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

267  Imogen's  Chamber.     {Martin,  R.Ai,  pinx.     F.  Bart^ 

sculp.      1780.) 

268  Cleopatra  and  Her  Maids  Arm  Anthony.     {Martin 

inv.  F.  Bart,  sculp.]  Dedicated  to  the  Corporation 
of  Liverpool. 

269  For  THE  Grand  Lodge  of  England  :  Representing 

Masonic  Charity.  (Engraved  by  Brother  Barto- 
lozzi,  R.A.  Painted  by  Brother  Stothard,  R.A* 
Jeff  ryes  published.     1802.) 

270  Nude    Female    (Venus  ?)    with    Vase.     {Cipriani 

inv.     Bart,  sculp.     1779.) 

271  Lodona.      {Maria     Cosway     pinx.      F.     Bart.     sc. 

Published  1792.) 

272  and  273  Two  large  allegorical  Subjects:    (?)  Arts  of 

Invention  and  Husbandry^     From  B.  West,  R.A. 
Bart\  Engr.     Fine  and  scarce  prints. 
274*Bacchus  and  Ariadne.     {G.  B.  Cipriani  Fiorentino 
inv.     F,  Bartolozzi  Fiorentino  sculp.     1763.) 
[N.B,   This  print,  in  Baron  de  Worms'  collection,  shows 
the  two  friends  working  together  as  early  as  1763,  and 
claiming  Florentine  birth.] 
275-278  The    Four    Elements  :      Earth,    Air,    Fire, 
Water.     {Drawn    by    Cipriani.     Engraved    by    F. 
Bart.      Published     May    20,     1803,     by    Molteno.) 
One  of  Bartolozzi's  latest  works  in  England.  Water, 
which    I    possess,    shows    Venus    drawn    by    dol- 
phins, 

279  The    Months.     {W,    Hamilton,    R.A.,    pinx.,    except 

"  January "  and  "  November,"  which  are  by  N. 
Gardiner.     F.  Bart,  sculp.) 

280  Love  and  Honour.     {H.  Bunburfdel.    Eng.  by  Bart** 


LIST  OF  PRINTS  95 

28i**Sleepin-gnymph  with  Loves.   A  beautiful  creatioa.' 
{Cipriani  and  Bart^.) 

282  **RoYAL  Academy  Diploma.  A  noble  allegorical  design. 

{Dated  1768).     See  p.  31. 

283  Tom   Jones  and  Molly  Seagrim  {from   Fielding's 

"  Tom  Jones").     {Loutherbourg  del.    Eng.  by  Bart.] 

284  The  Dead  Ass  and  The  Snuffbox  at  Calais,  {from 

Sterne's    "  Sentimental   Journey  "].      {Loutherbourg 
del.     Eng.  by  Bart.) 

BOOK  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  BENEFIT  TICKETS 

285  Frontispiece  {*Pan   pursuing    Syrinx,  with  Cupids) 

for  Six  Sonatas  by  J.  C.  Bach.     {Cipriani  inv. 
F.  Bart,  sculp.)     See  tail-piece. 

286  Another    for    J.    C.    Bach.     {Drawn    by    Carlini. 

Etched  by  Bartolozzi.) 

287  Frontispiece  for  Six   Sonatas   by   Borghi.     {By 

Cipriani  and  Bartolozzi.) 

288  Frontispiece  for  Rogers'  "  Century  of  Prints  "  : 

Time  and  Female  Figure  with  Love.     {Rebecca 
inv.     F.  Bart,  sculp.) 

289  Damon  AND  MusiDORA  (r/zowso«'s  "Seasons").  {Ang. 

Kauffman  pinx.     F.  Bart,  sculp.     Published  1782.) 

290  Three   Nymphs   with   Flowers   {Thomsoyi' s   "  Sea- 

sons ").     {Ang.  Kauffman  pinx.     F.  Baft,  sculp.) 
291-293  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost."     **Adam  awaking 
Eve.      {W.    Hamilton,    R.A.,    and    Bart\)     Adam, 
Eve,  and  the  Angel.     {T.  Stothard  and  Barf.) 

1  A  little  volume  of  six  prints  has  just  come  into  the  hands  of 
Messrs.  Goodhomes,  46  Knightsbridge,  W.  Imprint :  Published 
Jan.  1,  1788,  by  F,  Bartolozzi.  Sketches  of  tha  late  G.  B.  Cipriani. 
iso.  281  is  the  first  of  these,  The  Tragic  Muse,  Dido,  Galatea,  and 
Perseus  follow.  Cipriani  died  in  1785,  and  was  buried  in  Chelsea 
where  Bartolozzi  placed  a  monument  to  his  old  friend  s  memory. 


96  LIST  OF  PRINTS 

293  Metastasio's    "  Galatea."      (G.    B.    Cipriani    and 

F.  Bart\      1783.) 

294  Frontispiece  to  Bromley's   '"  Fine  Arts."   {Pax 

Arlium  Nutrix).       {B.   West    inv.,    17^7,  R.A.     F. 
Bart,  sculp.) 
295**The    Ticket     for    the    Mansion     House    Ball, 
given  by  J.  Wilkes  as  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in 
1775-     {Cipriani,  R.A.,  del.     F.  Bart.,  R. A.,  sculp.) 

296  Medallion  of  Handel,  held  up  by  Fame  and  Love. 

For  the  edition  of  "  Handel's  Songs." 

297  Bust  of  Martial,  with  Pan  Seated.     Frontispiece 

to  Graglia's  Italian  version  of  Martial's  poems. 

298  Frontispiece   to    Leonora.     {Drawn    by  Lady    Di^ 

Beauclerc.     Etched  by  F.  Bart.     1796.) 

299  Frontispiece  to  Cipriani's  "  Rudiments  of  Draw- 

ing."    {Engraved  by  F.  Bart.) 

TO  Thomson's  "  Seasons."  With 
medallion  portraits  of  Bartolozzi,  R.A.,  W.  Hamil- 
ton, R.A.,  and  P.  W.  Tomkins  {see  chap.  ii.J^ 
Fame  is  crowning  ThomsoDg 


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